Love beats virus as Ukraine couple throws online wedding

A Ukrainian couple has shown the COVID-19 pandemic can't hold back their love for each other by getting married online. And they invited 70 wedding guests to their unusual nuptial arrangements who watched via a video stream.

Lviv: A beautiful dress, decorated hall of a restaurant, some cameras, a big screen and no guests in the same room. This is how Inna Gumenyuk and Ihor Plaschovyi said, 'I do' in Ukraine's first online wedding.

Relatives watch a live stream of the ceremony. The mother of the bride might wish she can hug her daughter, but at least she can still witness the union.

This wedding has all the usual elements the couples exchange rings, their friends congratulate them, there's even some musical entertainment. It's just all done online.

Inna even had to do her hair and makeup so she had a little online training to get it just right. Just before their wedding the couple explained how they had to rush to make all the arrangements.

"That was an adventure, kind of a gamble. It was so unexpected for us, we haven't planned that. People spend a year preparing for a wedding and we had 10 days and even less, taking into account the Easter holiday," says Inna.

Ukraine's coronavirus quarantine was enforced on March 14 and it's still ongoing. It has already shut down many businesses. All restaurants and shops are closed, public transport and air travel stopped and even registry offices are not operating.

That's why all the preparation for the wedding was made online, including selecting the wedding suit and dress, rings and bouquet. Seventy guests from different cities and countries met for the wedding party held on an online meeting app.

Inna says that this method meant more people could attend. "Ihor is from Kyiv and I'm from Lviv. We have many relatives and friends all over Ukraine. We will invite also friends of our family and relatives from abroad. That's why it would be impossible to gather all of them in real life at one event. And this is the uniqueness of this wedding," she explains.

The wedding was organised by Kyiv based company Agency 42. The events industry is trying to survive the worst possible time, but Agency 42 decided to turn this challenge into new opportunities.

It's finding new ways for the sector to keep going in the new restricted, global reality. According to co-founder Denys Bloschynsky weddings are particularly suited to the format.

Bloschynsky's even got a name for it: "Project Phygital which fulfils the need of people to be together. Together with 15 other companies, Agency 42 announced the plan on social media to find a couple who would like to have an online wedding during the coronavirus lockdown.

They discovered a multitude of love stories, but Inna Gumenyuk and Ihor Plaschovyi impressed organizers. Each guest from Lviv had the wedding dinner, drinks and other presents from the newly-weds delivered to their homes.

There were even the tradition of throwing the bouquet to a single women at the party. The guest to "catch" it was chosen by random choice generator.

The marriage has been resisted by officials but the couple won't get their marriage documents until after quarantine. Their entire wedding was paid for by the organizers.

"We understand that we can offer this (online wedding) as an interesting business product. We can try to develop it and offer people who wants to hold similar events without restrictions, without borders, on all continents. We can hold marriages using the same methods for example if newly-weds are in Australia but all the relatives are in China or a couple is located in Europe with relatives all over the world. It's not a problem anymore," says Bloschynsky.

In his opinion, it will be much cheaper than traditional weddings and perhaps the only choice in a modern world threatened by coronavirus and filled with restrictions.

(With inputs from AP)