WHEN David Devon planned his wedding for Saturday, he couldn’t have known that coronavirus would disrupt his plans to whisk his American bride-to-be, Lini Svenson, across the Atlantic to Glasgow for a romantic service in his family’s parish church.

In these “make-do” times, David and Lini decided to go ahead on the planned date, and instead of Netherlee Parish Church on the south side of Glasgow, the wedding took place near their home on the shores of a lake in Connecticut, USA.

Just five people are allowed to attend public events in that state during this outbreak – but in fact, many more did so from across the world as the happy couple hosted a real but “virtual” wedding involving family and friends in a Zoom session.

The online wedding guests saw banking recruit expert David, 39, and teacher Lini, 37, married by a celebrant who was the father of a friend of hers. The groom wore a kilt and the bride a tartan shawl, and she wore a unique headband made by her mother.

Watching on from her home in West Linton was David’s older sister Carol Weir and her family.

She said yesterday: “It’s a really nice story because they were supposed to be getting married yesterday at Netherlee Parish Church, which is our family church where we were all christened and married, and then we were to go to the Sherbrooke Castle Hotel for the reception.

“The date had been set and all the paperwork was in order, while they also had their rings engraved with Saturday’s date, so they just decided to go ahead in Connecticut.

“They have a lovely house there and the estate has its own lake so they decided to get married by the lakeside.

“They phoned to say ‘we’re getting married anyway’ and I just said ‘what?’ as I thought it had all been postponed. But I’m really glad they did – it was such a beautiful and very emotional service.

“It was lovely to see them and all their friends and family in the Zoom chat and we could see they were having a lovely time in a lovely place.”

Sadly, David and Carol lost their father, also David, in June of last year, and Carol has also recently had to self-isolate with her husband Alan and their twin sons Alex and Devon after she developed symptoms of coronavirus. Thankfully, all are well and were able to watch the wedding online.

One of the bride’s friends, Lauren Zakalik, went on Facebook before the wedding to say: “Today is my best friend’s wedding. We met on the first day of kindergarten and have been inseparable since.

“We were supposed to be in Scotland for the celebration, but as we all know the universe had other plans.

“But love isn’t decided by location or party. The love she and her wonderful fiance share is stronger than any bond and they are making it known to the world in an intimate beach ceremony today. And it will be perfect.”

Carol added: “The people watching on were all able to raise a glass of champagne or wine to toast the happy couple, which was really nice.

“The plan is for them to come over here in December, virus permitting, and we’ll have a proper Scottish wedding, a real hoolie, for them then.

“Yes, everything is changed, and everything will have to be done in a different way and in a safe manner – they kept to the rules and the minister and two friends who are photographers were the only ones there and they all kept a safe distance as we could see.

“They did the right thing because you have to carry on and keep going. I think their story is an inspiration to us all.

“You can’t stop life for this thing.”

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