Letters from the Homefront: Love in the Time of Covid-19
The following “Letters from the Homefront” account is part of our new initiative, Collecting in Quarantine. Inspired by the poignant letters in the Maryland Historical Society collection documenting past adversities from the Spanish flu of 1918, to the Annapolis yellow fever epidemics of 1793 and 1800, MdHS is calling on Marylanders to send their personal stories of how the pandemic is impacting their lives.
May 21, 2020 – On this day, Alexandra Gold from Baltimore writes:
When we knew our wedding plans had to change, we really weren’t that worried or upset. We were forced to change them when our venue put a limitation on the number of guests we could have at our event, which was less than the amount of people we invited. Three thoughts dictated our emotions at the time: 1. there’s nothing we can do about it other than let time (and our insurance company) handle the emotional and financial damages, respectively; 2. our friends and family will support us and want to celebrate no matter what time of year, and 3. there are worse things happening in the world than our postponed wedding weekend. And we ended up getting a new kitten which has also taken our minds off of the fact that we didn’t get the wedding we planned.
In the end, we wouldn’t have had it any other way… we decided to have a ceremony outside of our friends’ house, one of who became an officiant for us, and quietly exchange rings and celebrate with a glass of champagne. We wore athleisure because our plan was to walk all over the Canton area saying hi to friends, and we were walking/hanging outside for 5 hours that day! We got married on S Milton Street (Canton) which is the block that our friends’ live on (they’re renters), and we also live in the Canton area (specifically Brewers Hill).
Before our “ceremony” two of our friends surprised us with an amazing outdoor mimosa and macaron bar to ourselves on the 800 block of S Bouldin Street courtesy of Alma Cocina Latina (for the mixers) and Sacre Sucre (for the macarons). That was followed by a walk to our friends house for the short ring exchange ceremony with our officiant friend where we were surprised (again) to see 20 of our closest friends in Baltimore watching from hundreds of feet (and of course more than 6 feet away from one another) down the 800 block of S Milton St. A Zoom room was also set up and we had a ton of friends and family surprise us by joining in on the celebration. I also got a small cake from Little Fig Bakeshop delivered to our doorstep the day before so that we can have it ready the next day.
Please note: The views, information, and opinions expressed and shared on the underbelly through the Collecting in Quarantine project do not necessarily represent those of the Maryland Historical Society. Our staff does not verify for accuracy the information contained within these submissions. We also do not edit the content beyond minor modifications for formatting or to remove personally identifying information, if applicable. Just like the historic letters in our collection, each letter presents the writer’s own perspective. The primary purpose of this series, with the permission of contributors, is to share and collect the experiences of Marylanders living through the COVID-19 crisis at this moment in time.
To learn more about the Collecting in Quarantine project and how to share a story of your own, click here.