A couple from Illinois, in the US, surprised their families with a wedding ceremony in their kitchen, after the coronavirus pandemic forced them to cancel their planned elopement.
Ashley Wells, 26, and Cody Wells, 35, had originally planned to elope to Las Vegas with their son Sean, seven, and were keen to still keep the date.
They did not tell their family, who were invited under the ruse of attending a coronavirus pyjama party.
Mrs Wells told the PA news agency: “I wanted to still keep the date, since by now I have created an email address with my new last name and the date, and I have ordered items with our wedding name and date on it.
“We went to our local courthouse last week and got a marriage licence, so I got to get married in my pyjamas with tacos and champagne.
“My dad also got the opportunity to ‘walk me down the hallway’.
The couple were married in front of a small group of family and celebrated with tacos and doughnuts.
“One of Ashley’s younger sisters was insistent that she knew something was going on. She was very confident that she was on to a secret plan.
“When she found out it was a wedding, she said ‘I did not have it figured out at all’.
Mrs Wells said: “Everyone so, so very happy and shocked.
“One of my sisters thought she had the whole plan figured out – she did not. It wasn’t until Brooke said ‘surprise, it’s a wedding’, for everyone to really know what was going on.”
In the state of Illinois, as of yesterday, 1,525 people had been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
