Love is not cancelled for Mount Prospect newlyweds
With the COVID-19 Coronavirus spreading across the entire planet, it is easy to look around these days and see we are sheltering in place at home in safety, socially distancing ourselves during mandatory grocery shopping missions and large events are being cancelled for the foreseeable future.
For couples awaiting their wedding date during this unprecedented global crisis, there is certainly confusion, uncertainty, doubt and depression. Weeks ago everything mattered - which wedding hashtag to pick, the perfect signature cocktail, where to spend your honeymoon unwinding after months of planning madness - and now all that matters is having each other.
In an official statement from its website, the CDC states, "Officials may ask you to modify, postpone, or cancel large events for the safety and well-being of your event staff, participants and the community. The details of your emergency operations plan should be based on the size and duration of your events, demographics of the participants, complexity of your event operations, and type of on-site services and activities your event may offer."
Fortunately love was not cancelled for Mount Prospect newlyweds, Teri and Steve Gonczy.
In a post on a community Facebook group on Monday, March 30, Mount Prospect resident Angela Nicolosi sought volunteers who were interested in raising the spirits of a couple of local residents.
Angela's husband Rick Kesler is a pastor at The South Church of Mount Prospect and was contacted by a deacon who was searching for a way to help a couple who was intending on getting married at another local Mount Prospect church, St Raymond Parish, but was unable to because the church was indefinitely closed and he unfortunately couldn't marry them off-site.
As Angela wrote on Facebook: "Tuesday, March 31, at 2 p.m., Rick will marry them in the sanctuary of the South Church. That's it - just the four of us with proper physical distancing. However, I was thinking that if we walked them down the aisle and out the front doors of the church that it would be way cool if they were greeted with a bunch of people cheering for them and maybe holding signs saying something like 'Congratulations Steve & Ter.' Balloons, kazoos, pinwheels would all be acceptable. Properly distanced of course, especially since they are in the "at risk" group because of their age. If those of you outside the church could snap some pics and send them to me and/or post them on our page then we could "shower" them with more pics and make their occasion a little more memorable in these strange times."
The couple celebrated their vows at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, March 31 at the The South Church of Mount Prospect. Though nobody was permitted to attended the couples ceremony due to COVID-19, the newlyweds were greeted by neighbors outside the church who held up signs from distance congratulating the couple.
Enjoy more photos and congratulate the couple by signing their guest book at