HELEN & ERIC

CORONA WEDDING IN EAST HAMPTON

Erik and I have been together for 11 years, but for several years we didn't talk at all - our relationship simply felt like a roller coaster ride. Eric proposed to me in 2019, but we decided to wait to get married until we were living together in the same town. So a few months later, I quit my job in San Francisco and returned to New York, straight into the fashion world. Within a few months, everything changed. Borders closed, cities became fortresses, life stopped, and we weren't allowed to think about flying. March, April, summer... A global crisis that put me - like many others - out of a job. We planned a wedding dinner at the Flora Bar in the beautiful brutalist building of the Met Breuer - which will never open again. Flying to Shanghai for the reception with my family - unthinkable. Since I was a kid, I wanted a ceremony at City Hall - but the officiants only worked online. October - friends asked us if we were still getting married. Eric and I decided to book a date. The clerk informed us that several courts in New York State were getting married, limit of invitees: 10. After many stressful phone calls, the East Hampton courthouse confirmed the date as October 10, 2020. We now had exactly five days to set up the entire wedding! My friend Grace phoned several pastry shops and ordered the wedding cake; Christina picked out the wine; Nicole and Julia created the soundtrack; Freda luckily had time to take our pictures; I opened Ottolenghi's cookbooks and cooked for three days. Wedding day morning - and I didn't have a wedding dress, phone calls all round, they're somewhere in West Orange! My parents helped. Ready, not ready, in short, the stars were aligned and the wedding was going to happen.

Text: bride Helen Wu | Photo: Freda Banks