Wedding bells haven’t rung as often during the pandemic, just another rite of passage interrupted by COVID-19. Justice of the Peace Aurora Hernandez explains. “I would have considered weddings essential. People are trying to get married. This is a big thing in a person's life.”
Hernandez has presided over a number of ceremonies during the pandemic. But what does a wedding look like during a health crisis? “Initially when there was a limit, it was only the couple and myself. And as things started to lax, it's been the couple and max seven people in the courtroom. So a total of 10, including me and the couple.”
Rene and Cody Swackhammer tied the knot early on in the lock down. They had planned to do something larger, but with all of the uncertainty they thought “why not now?”
Rene addressed the decisions leading up to their wedding day. “Yeah, it was just this fun, romantic thing, like, "Hey, why don't we just do it?" You know? And we kept it secret primarily because I did not want my mom to show up. And that sounds horrible, but my mom is immune compromised and I didn't want her to chance it.”
Cody added “Yeah. Maybe like seven or eight people knew. But at that point, they'd shut down the whole court system, we were like the only thing that was happening at the courthouse that day.”
Hernandez understands any curiosity about why a couple would choose to get married in a time of uncertainty. “When I ask them why did you select here, sometimes I ask, they'll say, "Well, we're still going to have our big wedding in five months. Well, we decided to do it early because of COVID." They just didn't know what was going to happen ... initially they were afraid that everything was going to shut down. Nobody knew what was happening, so that happened. But then as slowly it's picking up, now it's more jovial and we're coming back to normal.”
Even as things move closer normal, the courthouse is still taking the threat of COVID-19 seriously. For the Swackhammers, those extra precautions eased any health concerns. Rene adds “It felt safe and also surreal … because I had a police officer taking my temperature before I got married and it was a little weird.”
