CALIFORNIA – With a connection that's stronger than Wi-Fi, not even a pandemic could stop the love of Robert Hughes and Sammi Heffron.

The couple got engaged last May. Heffron, a SoCal native, who now lives in Washington, DC, says they quickly realized they would have to make a lot of compromises to afford a traditional wedding.

“I started getting very overwhelmed," said Heffron. 

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, they decided to explore a virtual wedding as an alternative.

“It was fun because it wasn’t super stressful and we got to invite more people than we would have,” Heffron said.

The May wedding, which took place using Zoom, meant that friends and family from far-flung locations like China, Italy, and Southern California could all bear witness, despite travel advisories and lockdowns. 

“Because we’re not all in the same spot, we kind of wanted to make it feel like we were together,” said Heffron. “We thought it could be cool to still have a dress code, or give people ideas for what kind of food to eat, so we thought pizza. Pizza was easy.”

There was a lot of technical groundwork and explaining they had to do, especially with elderly family members. But they planned their virtual wedding in just a month, spending hundreds, not thousands. of dollars. They invited almost 100 people.

Despite challenges, they managed to recreate the more traditional moments of a wedding, like the bouquet toss, and even add a few surprises, like when the groom shaved. 

There were toasts, and rounds of screenshots. They also found some real benefits to holding their nuptials virtually. 

“There were definitely some points where we were like, mute” said Hughes. “Oh yeah, we had to mute somebody who kept talking and talking about something not important and just stealing the show.”

They say, the wedding was not less than a traditional wedding, but more of what a wedding should be.

“The way we did it was maybe more special,” Heffron said. “I think that we might have got to experience it more than someone’s traditional wedding. I think that, it was just us two here. We were like sharing our special bond, but also people were watching us as well.” 

“What was also nice is that we didn’t have to wait, how long would we have had to wait?” asked Hughes. “We could be talking about another year or two. It was nice feeling like nothing could get in our way and keep us from celebrating this.” 

In a world where everything seems paused, this virtual wedding allowed one couple to move forward with their lives.