When a personal friend of Gary Jackson’s asked him in January to officiate his daughter’s wedding, the Denver County Court judge blocked off April 4 for the ceremony.

Then a global pandemic hit.

“The wedding was going to be at a commercial wedding venue and there were going to be 150 people there,” Jackson recalled. With a stay-at-home order in effect for Colorado and Kansas, where many of the wedding guests would travel from, the bride and groom nevertheless wanted to proceed as close to the plan as possible given the circumstances.

Jackson put on his robe, a face mask, and trekked seven blocks to his friend’s house. At the time, the judge “didn’t even think about” how he might have violated the stay-at-home order – as “weddings” are not included in the list of acceptable reasons to go outside. 

“Doing weddings, I wouldn’t consider it to be an essential function of my job, even though it is something that is requested of all the judges,” he reflected.

At the house, only the bride and groom were not wearing face masks. (They had to kiss each other, after all.) The sole attendees were the bride’s parents and the family dog, although a camera set up in the room live streamed the ceremony to all the relatives in Kansas.

“I didn’t want to be in a place where there were going to be more than five or six people. I wanted to make sure that I remained 6 feet away from the bride and groom. So I kept the distance in mind for my own personal safety,” said the 74-year-old judge.

While the living room wedding was carefully choreographed for safety, the Tuesday morning wedding that Karen Steinhauser officiated took an extra precaution: she wasn’t there.

“The couple actually lives in Denver but they’re from Russia, and so all their family is back in Russia,” said Steinhauser, a relief judge for the Aurora Municipal Court. “They were at the steps of the city and county building and they were able to do a Zoom link.”

Steinhauser herself participated by video, and gave the groom her script beforehand so he could translate to Russian for the guests. Looking at the windows onscreen, she saw one group of attendees display signs that read “Congratulations” and other people hold up champagne glasses for toasts.

Even before the ceremony, the betrothed coordinated an elaborate means of obtaining the signature for their marriage license that may have actually complied with the letter (people may leave home for “obtaining necessary services … for themselves and their family”) of the stay-at-home order.

“I gave them my address. They drove over, left the envelope on my porch, went back to their cars, and stayed in there,” explained Steinhauser. “I signed it on my porch and left it on the porch. Then I went back in the house and they picked it up.”

In a non-crisis year, Steinhauser estimated that there was nearly one wedding per day at the Aurora courthouse, a practice which has since been halted. Pondering this week’s experience, the judge felt that people are learning to adapt to remote participation in cultural and community events – and for the better. The value of online participation may extend beyond the life of the coronavirus, as there will always be people who wish to attend events who are precluded by illness, lack of funds or logistical dilemmas.

“I’m not sure that people would have even thought of this had this pandemic not happened,” she said. “So going forward, this might also be a way that more people are able to be a part of these events that may not have been, even in non-COVID times.”

As for Jackson, he has another wedding scheduled for April 24. Like the first, it will be at the bridge and groom’s home, and there will be a camera live streaming to the guests.

“He had to make sure that his mother could be there, or she was going to disinherit him from the will,” Jackson said.