Mystic — For nearly two decades, nondenominational minister Marie Tyler Wiley has been performing free weddings on Valentine’s Day at the Meeting House in Olde Mistick Village. Each year, dozens of couples, many bringing family and friends, get married or renew their vows.
However, for safety reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic, she can't perform the weddings this year. “It’s very hard when people are so happy and joyful — and happy as larks — to get them to pay attention to COVID protocols,” she explained.
Wiley said couples from the surrounding area, and from around the United States, show up each year on Valentine's Day, so she wants to get the word out to them so they don’t go through the trouble of traveling here only to find she won’t be performing the weddings.
Wiley, also a Realtor with William Raveis, said she performs the ceremonies each year to give other people the wedding she always dreamed of. She said she thought it would be romantic when she and her husband eloped in 1989. However, she said the ceremony at City Hall in Manhattan was anything but, with the gentleman marrying her and her husband yelling at the end, “Next!”
“I live vicariously through my couples,” Wiley said. “I give them the wedding I always wanted, which is joyful and full of love and happiness.”
“Even when I have tons of people, I make it a mission to connect with the couple,” she added, spending a few moments with each couple to talk to and help prepare them for the ceremony so they enjoy it.
She said she also wants to give back and help people so they don’t have to pay for anything for their wedding. “This is my day to say thank you to the world for being so to kind me,” she said. “I have a great life and so it’s me trying to make someone else’s life great.”
Valentine’s Day is her son's birthday — "He was my first Valentine ever," she said — so she told him that this year he gets her back for all those years she was marrying people on his birthday. He turns 36 this year.
She said next year, hopefully it will be back to normal and “we can continue on with a great tradition.”
"day" - Google News
February 03, 2021 at 06:56AM
https://ift.tt/2LcJhLw
Annual free Mystic Valentine's Day weddings taking a year off due to pandemic - theday.com
"day" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3f7h3fo
https://ift.tt/2VYSiKW
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Annual free Mystic Valentine's Day weddings taking a year off due to pandemic - theday.com"
Post a Comment