Park loophole allows cross-border couples to wed
Peace Arch located on border between B.C. and Washington open despite border closure
SEATTLE— The words on a handmade sign spoke eloquently: “Love is not tourism.”
Last Sunday, a wedding — one of many — took place at busy Peace Arch Historical State Park in Blaine, Wash., uniting a couple who had been separated by a closed border for more than six months. Allyssa Howard drove north from the Everett area, where she has lived for the past four years; Sara Morosan came from her home in Chilliwack, B.C., an 80-minute drive east of Vancouver. Both wore lace dresses — one black, one white — with black lace-up boots; both of their faces glowed.
Howard and Morosan are just one of many cross-border couples whose plans for a life together have been affected by new pandemic regulations — and who came together, appropriately, at the Peace Arch. The park is unique along the U.S.-Canada border, in that it is a place where people from either side of the border can gather together. The border itself officially closed to non-essential travel in March (essentially banning tourism) and the Canadian side of the park closed in June. But the gatherings at the Peace Arch have continued; a peaceful loophole.
And the weddings there have multiplied.
“It’s happening every day, literally dozens of couples at the border, people from around the country,” said Len Saunders, an immigration lawyer in the border town of Blaine. He noted that he’s doing a “huge business in spousal green cards, never in this capacity before.”
Park ranger Rickey Blank, manager of the Peace Arch Historical State Park, concurred. Pre-COVID, he said in an email, “weddings between folks across the border” might happen once or twice a week; now it’s 20 to 25 weddings weekly.
Blank said that couples wishing to marry at the park should contact park staff in advance — impromptu weddings are discouraged — and expect to follow all current physical distancing guidelines.
Howard, who is 34, and Morosan, 28, met online six years ago, immediately drawn together by shared interests, particularly in Japanese animation.
“We just started talking about the same kind of nerdy stuff,” remembered Howard of their instant connection. The two met in person for the first time in 2015, when Morosan flew to Minneapolis, where Howard then lived. Love blossomed, and Howard found a new job in Everett and moved west in 2016.
It wasn’t an easy decision — “the first time moving away from my family,” Howard said in a telephone interview — but it meant the two would be separated only by a drive of a few hours and an open border.
The miles were many, but so were the rewards: By the time of the Vancouver Pride Festival in August 2019, the two were engaged, with a wedding planned for October of this year.
And then the pandemic hit and the border slammed closed. Neither woman could cross the border to see the other; visiting a non-relative loved one is considered non-essential travel. (There are exceptions for travel into Canada for immediate family, but a fiancée does not qualify.) The October plans for a bigger wedding were put on hold.
“At that point, we thought, ‘Let’s wait until the borders open,’ ” Howard said, but that day didn’t come.”
Last Sunday, the wedding was small and simple, with a friend officiating and a very small group of friends and family looking on. Now Howard, who can cross the border once the marriage licence is certified, is planning to move north, with amandatory14-day quarantine immediately after her arrival. She’ll need to apply for permanent residency status, for which being married to a Canadian qualifies her.
“I’m just so excited to see her again,” said Howard, speaking before the wedding.
“She’s always been there, ready to help me whenever I needed her. I feel like she is someone who’s willing to fight for me and to go the distance. I’ll do the exact same thing for her.”