TWO high school sweethearts from Blayney have refused to be beaten by the coronavirus pandemic and have tied the knot in a wedding that took just 18 hours to organise.
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Micci Hatch and Hamish Guthrie have known each other since they were in preschool and as they watched Prime Minister Scott Morrison's announcement on Tuesday that weddings would be part of new nationwide restrictions in a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19 they knew they had to do something.
"I looked at him and said 'Hamish, do you want to get married tomorrow?' and he said 'why not'," Ms Hatch said.
The couple were already engaged and were to be wed on April 18, but they were determined not to be thwarted by government restrictions that would limit wedding participants to just five people, including the bride and groom.
With restrictions to commence at midnight on Wednesday, they had no time to waste.
"We decided at 9.30pm on Tuesday and we got married at 3.30pm on Wednesday," Ms Hatch said.
"We called our parents at 9.40pm and their first reaction was 'we're going to be there'."
Luckily, Ms Hatch already had her wedding dress and the couple had also decided on a venue - The Macarthur Rose Garden at Old Parliament House in Canberra.
"Both sets of parents were there, my bridesmaid, and then two of Hamish's colleagues," Ms Hatch said.
"One of the colleagues, who is in marketing and communications, volunteered to film the wedding and my sister created a Facebook page so we could livestream it.
"I had all my friends and family there watching it."
The nuptials may have been far from what the couple had planned, but as it turned out, Ms Hatch said it was her "dream wedding".
We're spending our first day as a married couple in self isolation.
- Micci Hatch
"It was really nice and intimate and there was a huge amount of humour in it," she said.
There was so much humour, in fact, that Mr Guthrie's parents, in a nod to nationwide shortages of the household essential, gave the newlyweds a packet of toilet paper.
Speaking to the Western Advocate the day after their big day, the couple said the significance of getting married amid the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic was not lost on them.
They have been unable to go on a honeymoon or even have a breakfast out the following day due to government regulations.
"We're spending our first day as a married couple in self-isolation," Ms Hatch said.
"We figure if you can plan a wedding in 18 hours, you can survive anything."
The newlyweds went to preschool together, were students at Blayney High School and finally "got together on the legal studies excursion" in Year 12, Ms Hatch said.
The couple are living in Queanbeyan.
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Nadine Morton
Nadine Morton covers emergency services and breaking news for the Illawarra Mercury. She takes pride in regional journalism which she believes is crucial to informing our towns and cities. Have a story? Email her at nadine.morton@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Nadine Morton covers emergency services and breaking news for the Illawarra Mercury. She takes pride in regional journalism which she believes is crucial to informing our towns and cities. Have a story? Email her at nadine.morton@austcommunitymedia.com.au
