Bride forced to make major changes to wedding due to coronavirus pandemic

Of all the reasons a bride could be forced to postpone or even cancel her wedding, a pandemic has to be one of the more unusual.

For bride-to-be Dominique Hermo, it came as a shock.

Her fiance Florian Birouste had proposed to her in January 2019, well before the world had heard of COVID-19. The couple met at a housewarming party for Dominique's cousin Nathan.

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"We locked eyes across the room, and I think I said something about the soccer game, something about Sydney FC, like I knew everything about soccer, but I didn't," she tells 9Honey.

They began talking, then dating and fell for each other, hard.

If the proposal sets the scene for a couple's wedding, theirs should have been epic.

Florian pulled out all the stops for the proposal, lining the driveway of Dominique's family home with tea lights that led to the tennis court where he was waiting for her.

The original date for their wedding was March 28, and they had planned an incredible ceremony and reception.

Almost everything had been finalised when COVID-19 landed in Australia. The couple had quit their jobs and were planning to move to France after the wedding.

"Then COVID started coming in harder and harder and initially we dropped our number of guests down from 160 people to 100 people including vendors, then to 80 which was basically half," Dominique says.

"Then restrictions became tighter and tighter and it just wasn't looking like the wedding we wanted anymore."

The stress of watching the news to find out what changes they'd have to make to their nuptials took their toll until Dominique couldn't take it anymore.

"We both didn't have jobs and we weren't getting married. We were moving all of our plans," she says.

"I was a mess, crying all the time, but once we decided to postpone it to September because it wasn't what we wanted, a weight lifted."

After moving the wedding to what they thought was a 'safe' date, the couple began job hunting and managed to find work.

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As it became clear the coronavirus pandemic was here to stay, they decided to go ahead with their September wedding regardless of the restrictions they would face.

That meant a smaller event with no dancing and none of Florian's family being able to fly in from their homes in France and America to attend.

"Once we decided to postpone it to September because it wasn't what we wanted, a weight lifted."

Still, Dominque says their wedding was truly special. They tied the knot at the Mint on Sydney's Macquarie Street and had their reception at Ovolo Hotel at Woolloomooloo

To make up for an empty dance floor, the newlyweds played three games with their guests, including trivia. They had a seven-piece band and adjusted the playlist to create an atmosphere that wasn't too dance floor.

Because a father-daughter dance wasn't allowed, Dominique and her dad "danced-walked to the bar" to get a champagne, because walking to the bar was allowed.

The couple also had break out lounges at the back of the room that guests could sit on and mingle so they weren't stuck to their own table, and set up a gelato cart as a novelty.

"I think the biggest compliment someone gave me about our wedding was that I had a big smile on my face all day," Dominique says.

"Everyone at the venue was super-attentive, making sure our drinks were always full, and I think seeing how happy everyone felt was infectious."

She says there's nothing she would change about her wedding and the pandemic helped her remember why she was getting married in the first place.

"I had to remember why we were doing it," she says. "We just wanted to get married. Anything else on top of that was a bonus."

Listen to COVID Weddings, how to get creative while keeping to restrictions from The Wedding Digest on your favourite podcast app.