It's wedding season, but walking down the aisle and saying those sacred vows has been put on hold for many during the coronavirus pandemic.


What You Need To Know

  • Jenine and Brian Wolff turned their backyard in Tonawanda into a wedding venue with guests viewing online
  • He estimates their Zoom wedding had about 140 people watching
  • They hope to celebrate with family and friends in-person at a later date

However, one local couple kept their special day in a way befitting life in 2020.

"We were 100 percent sure that this is right," says bride Jenine Wolff.

She and Brian Wolff first got together more than three years ago.

He is the director of athletic communications at the University at Buffalo and she is currently going to graduate school at UB, but campus is not where their relationship began.

"We met on Match.com, so I guess it's only fitting that we met online and that we got married online," he says.

This was no traditional wedding. They were set to tie the knot on May 23 in Cazenovia, New York with about 175 people invited.

The coronavirus pandemic caused them to postpone the wedding until July, and then to next year. That was until last week.

"Jenine was just like, 'You know what? It's our original wedding day. Let's just do it. Let's just go ahead and do it,'" he says.

"We can make this into something amazing and kind of take control back for us," she adds.

So they quickly decided to turn their backyard in Tonawanda into a wedding venue, with guests viewing online. They ordered decorations. Statewide pause orders meant Jenine's wedding dress and wedding band weren't ready, so she found a dress at Target and a ring from Etsy.

They talked with the clerk's office to make sure their virtual quarantine wedding would be legal. The officiant was required to physically be in New York state, so Jenine asked a college friend who was ordained to help from her location in Albany.

Three close friends served as witnesses in person.

And their loved ones were also part of their big day, on a massive Zoom video that Brian estimated had about 140 people watching the wedding.

"At first, everyone wasn't exactly sure where the mute button was on their Zoom, but once they kind of figured that out and worked their way through it, it turned out really well," he says.

On Saturday, May 23, 2020, the date they planned all along, they officially became Mr. and Mrs. Wolff.

"The ceremony was beautiful, and then afterward was just so much fun. Everything worked so well," Jenine says. “We had tons of champagne and we danced. And we weren't sure how dancing over Zoom would look, but it was actually a lot of fun."

They hope to celebrate with family and friends in-person at a later date, and the honeymoon is still on hold for now, but they're happy their wedding day was truly unforgettable.

"I think people are thinking even now, hey, we don't have to postpone our entire lives. There are a lot of things we can do over Zoom and still celebrate the monumental moments in people's lives," Brian says.

Proving even in the age of social distancing, love knows no bounds.