It was a case of third time lucky for newly-weds Sujin and Jason Wong.
The young Meadowbank couple were married at St Peter Chanel Catholic Church at Hunters Hill, just hours before being placed in lockdown, and despite the challenges of organising a wedding in five hours, said they wouldn’t have had their special day any other way.
Witnessed by just seven people and under the light of a full moon, they said unlike so many other couples who spent months, even years, preparing their perfect day, they felt “so blessed” to be married before God … and the impending lockdown.
“We found out about the lockdown at about 1pm and were married at 7pm that night, it was so spontaneous and crazy but also so intimate and beautiful,” Sujin smiled.
“We organised the Church, the priest, photographer, hair and make-up artist all in a matter of hours and it all just came together.
“We had already cancelled the wedding twice before due to COVID and thought ‘let’s just do it’ and it couldn’t have been more special.
“The Church and priest had already been booked for the next day so we rang them asking if the wedding could be bought forward and they said yes. The photographer and hair and make-up artist also agreed so we were all set to go.
“The only thing we didn’t have was a reception venue, so we ended up at a Korean fried chicken café still dressed in our wedding clothes which really capped off a great day.
“We couldn’t thank everyone enough, especially Fr Albert from the Korean Catholic Church at Silverwater and Fr Kevin from St Peter Chanel, for agreeing to be a part of it at such short notice and we both felt God had a special hand in enabling us to get married in such challenging circumstances.”
Originally scheduled for COVID-gripped winter 2020, the couple re-scheduled their wedding for June 26, only to discover the NSW Government had issued a snap lockdown for all residents and workers in four local government areas from 11.59pm the previous night, leaving them the choice of again rescheduling the wedding or getting married with a few hours to spare.
The couple said the only piece of advice they could offer couples planning a wedding is … not to spend so much time planning.
“We originally spent months and months planning every detail of our original wedding to make sure everyone had a great time,” Jason said.
“We had about 150 guests and to be honest it was all getting to be such a lot of work trying to pull it all together.
“At the end of the day we both felt that despite having to change our plans on the day when it really counted we just had each other, it was all a bit of a blessing for us, enabling us to get married the way we always wanted to.
“I think people organising a wedding tend to get a little lost in all the planning and forget about each other, ours was such a beautiful and intimate wedding and something we will never forget.”