DRIVE-IN WEDDINGS THE IN THING
Restrictions prompt couples to change gear when it comes to lockdown nuptials
GOING to the drive-in for a movie is something people are familiar with, but imagine witnessing a drive-in style wedding from your car.
That is one of the latest trends to take off in various countries including here at home amid the lockdown restrictions.
The upmarket Collisheen Estate in Ballito, on the Kwazulu-natal North Coast, is offering couples whose wedding plans were thrown into disarray due to the national lockdown a chance to exchange vows in front of their friends and family, who will be seated in their vehicles.
Wayne Hulett, the owner, said just as lockdown was announced a friend joked about drive-in weddings.
“As time went on and the lockdown was extended, I realised that it was something that we just had to do, so we set the ball rolling.
“The response to this concept has been absolutely mind-blowing.”
Hulett said the first drive-in wedding is due to take place next month.
The venue will allow 26 vehicles with a couple in each. While witnessing the wedding, guests will tuck into a basket of canapés.
Hulett said in the past few months there had been a number of depressed couples who had set their hearts on getting married this year.
“We felt that at least they could have a beautiful, romantic ceremony, even with the lockdown restrictions,” he said, adding the estate had had 52 weddings postponed or cancelled.
According to the Washington Post newspaper, the pandemic and shutdowns helped people get creative about their celebrations. In the process, they are saving money and, more importantly, realising that it’s not the size of the event that matters.
Because of the coronavirus, couples who would normally rent out catering halls for their wedding receptions, many taking on debt to mark the occasion of their union, are opting instead for intimate ceremonies in the park, in their backyard or in the middle of the street, with just a few family members and friends.
Or they are using an online videoconference tool to connect with folks remotely as they say their vows.
One such couple, who decided to say their wedding vows in a virtual ceremony via Skype, was Lennin Naidoo and Nattalean Pillay of Johannesburg.
The couple, both 25, formerly of Phoenix, in Durban, decided to not let the national lockdown deprive them of saying their “I dos” on the day they had originally planned, April 12.
However, instead of celebrating their wedding at the Sunford Conference Centre in Durban, the couple exchanged vows in their Boksburg flat, which was streamed live via Skype.
Their parents, officiating priest, Naidoo’s sister and Pillay’s cousins all got to witness the wedding on their phones from their homes in Durban.
“We were very disappointed when the lockdown was announced as we had been planning the wedding since last July. My pastor, who is also my uncle, suggested the Skype wedding.
“We were happy we got to do what was important, our vows. We made it special and intimate. We danced and took selfies,” said Pillay.
She said she never got to wear her wedding dress, which was in Durban, but said perhaps when everything returns to normality they would have a celebration and she would get to wear her white gown.