«(…) We asked the facility if we could get married in the parking lot because her window faces the parking lot and of course, we got so much more,» said bride Kirsten Haigh.
Steven Shoemaker and Kirsten Haigh were married in the courtyard of a nursing home in the Los Angeles area, USA, to ensure that Haigh’s 89-year-old grandmother wouldn’t miss the important event.
«She’s such a fantastic host that it would be just like her to find a way to host our wedding,» Haigh told ABC7.
ABC7
The newlyweds live in San Francisco, but they’d always planned on getting married in Orange County. «We were planning on having a big wedding in Costa Mesa on September 6th. Everybody was invited. Probably at least 100, 150 people,» Shoemaker said. However, all that changed with the coronavirus pandemic.
«We had an epiphany about what really matters here, so we asked the facility if we could get married in the parking lot because her window faces the parking lot and of course we got so much more,» Haigh said.
Park Vista Health Center worked with the family to make this happen, starting with a limited guest list: the groom’s brother even stepped in as an officiant to allow one more guest.
ABC7
«Every single one counts – you bring in one officiant and all of a sudden we’re at 14, 15 people, and that doesn’t work,» Shoemaker said. Everyone stayed outside, and they were all in and out in about two hours.
«I am comforted when I have my temperature checked or I see all the hand sanitizer,» Haigh said. «I’ve never been to any like this, but somehow they’ve done a very nice job,» said her grandmother, Jerry Goss.
ABC7
Although Goss wishes they would’ve had the wedding they dreamed of, she’s grateful to be a part of it. «You know, we have to make the best in life. Not everything works smoothly,” she said.
Park Vista says it’s had zero cases of COVID-19 since March, so they made sure that all the extra precautions they’ve taken since then were also taken during the wedding ceremony.