Dilip Kuner
A SPANISH couple held their ‘wedding’ half hanging out of their apartment window with the whole street as witnesses – as the coronavirus pandemic struck.
Being a wedding planner by trade, Alba Díaz had spent a year carefully planning her dream ceremony after she and boyfriend Daniel Camino decided to tie the knot.
The venue was booked, flowers ordered and catering arranged, with guests coming from across Spain – and as far away as Iceland – for the event.
But instead of holding the nuptials in the lavishly decorated venue in front of 190 guests, they were forced to shout ‘I do’ from their flat’s window in a makeshift ceremony.
While in many ways disappointing, they were thrilled to be cheered on by neighbours from windows along the street in A Coruna, in Galicia.
Last week, as the pandemic grew and grew, Alba and Daniel realised they were going to have to cancel their wedding, despite all the time and money they had already put in to it.
Then last Saturday, their decision was confirmed as the country was put into lockdown by the government.
The despondent couple returned home to contemplate the wreckage of their plans.
Then, on what had been planned to be the big day – guests started sending videos of themselves with their hair done and dressed up just as if they were going to the real ceremony.
And that is when Daniel had the idea of carrying on anyway, even though they will have to have a legal ceremony later.
A neighbour agreed to ‘officiate’ from his apartment window, while another neighbour across the street recorded the event.
Alba had left her wedding dress behind in Lujo, where the ceremony should have taken place, so she donned a gown she had planned to wear at the reception. Daniel put on a suit he had worn to a recent wedding he had attended and they were ready to go.
And so the officiating neighbour shouted from his window: “On this special day, two friends get married. Alba, do you want Daniel as your husband?”
“Of course I do,” she shouted.
Alerted by the noise, other neighbours poked their heads out of their windows to hear the next words: “Daniel, do you want Alba as your wife?”
“Of course I do, for the rest of my life,” he answered.
Applause and cheers rang down the street as the bride threw an improvised bouquet of red flowers to a neighbour, among calls from witnesses up and down the street insisting Alba and Daniel seal the moment with a kiss.
Now they will have their honeymoon at home instead of the planned trip to Portugal and Italy.
As Alba said: “There’s not a lot of folk who can say that their honeymoon was 15 days with their husband at home.”
