On the day of the wedding I woke up and, I was okay. Really, really okay. I could do this

As told to Rivka Streicher

I’d been planning my wedding for years. I saved invitations that struck my fancy in a drawer, I’d been mentally designing my gown for ages, I knew I wanted colorful, towering flowers.

My mother said mine was her easiest wedding to plan.

I wasn’t fazed by all of the choices. I like my nice things. Give me detail and design and I’m in my element. It was going to be beautiful.

And it was beautiful.

But not in any of the ways I’d planned.

My chassan is from Israel. The panic started early there, as did the protective measures. He and his family were meant to come to London after Purim, a couple of days before our wedding. With so many flights being canceled, they left Israel a week earlier, which meant skipping the big aufruf my in-laws had planned for their oldest son, and hastily making a small event a week earlier.

We were relieved they were in town. In England, things were still laid back. Purim was festive as ever, with people donning masks as a Purim getup. The prime minister was taking a much more laissez-faire approach and we were happy to go along.

Our wedding was scheduled for Wednesday. We held our breath all Shabbos, but the hall didn’t cancel. People were bopping elbows instead of shaking hands. So what?

Right after Shabbos, the messages started coming in. Concerned friends, neighbors, the caterer, the makeup artist. Switch to Plan B, they all said. You can’t use the big hall or have so many people. You’ve got to scale down.

I didn’t want to hear any of this. I got into bed and turned off my phone.

I heard the whispers from downstairs. My father went to check out a family friend’s big house overlooking the park, to assess how many people it could fit. I was frozen in bed. “Whatever,” I said. “Just leave me out of it.”

My parents were upset for me. I’m a party girl. I wanted a big, loud bash. They had this crazy idea. A helicopter. It would land in the park and fly chassan and kallah into the clouds after the chuppah. Now that perked me up.

On Monday, we put Plan B into motion.