Scotch Plains Bride Hosts Drive-In Porch Wedding Amid Coronavirus – Scotch Plains, NJ Patch

SCOTCH PLAINS, NJ After the coronavirus crushed her fairy tale wedding, Scotch Plains bride-to-be Rebecca Citarella is hosting a drive-in live affair on her family's front porch.

"The wedding is definitely not what I envisioned," Citarella said. "Every girl imagines the perfect princess day, but I am definitely excited and looking at it more for the excitement to start a new life with my fiance."

Citarella, 20, and West Point Cadet Brandon Fast, 22, met in August online, quickly fell in love and got engaged on Halloween. They were supposed to get hitched this past Saturday at West Point at the Cadet Chapel.

"It is this gorgeous chapel, very cool, like a castle," Citarella said. "The reception was also going to be up there near the Hudson Valley area with 250 people coming. It was going to be a big wedding. My mom was very excited."

Citarella said once the coronavirus hit, it was tough. It postponed Fast's graduation to this weekend, which Citarella can no longer attend. This caused the wedding to be pushed to June 24. It did, however, allow the couple to have a few months to be quarantined together.

"Of course, you want a nice, special wedding with limousines and everything else, but it is more important to spend this special time with the person you are marrying," Citarella said. "We are trying to make best of it. If we waited for the entire world to open up again, then we would never get married."

Creating their own special day, the couple will be transforming Citarella's childhood home into a romantic setting for family and friends to see the wedding ceremony. Citarella's parents are putting up lace as a backdrop, re-seeding the grass and planting flowers, and her father has taken on woodworking to build a cross and benches.

Citarella hopes to be able to close off a section of her street to be able to have guests watch the ceremony from their cars.

"Like a drive-in movie theater," Citarella said. "We will be following social distancing especially for my grandparents, who can't be exposed to anything .... They will still be able to park and watch the ceremony on the porch from their car."

With everything being canceled, the couple was unable to recoup a lot of their money from vendors such as the DJ, photographer, and more. However, Citarella said the town and residents have been "great."

Locals have donated flowers and other services to allow Citarella and Fast to still have their special day. A friend will be doing the photography, and they will use a playlist instead of a DJ.

"We are still looking for a cake," Citarella said. "We are just trying to do this in the most affordable way, since we lost a lot of money."

The backyard will serve as the space for the reception, with just the immediate families. Citarella does not know how many people will be allowed to attend, as the number allowed by Gov. Phil Murphy keeps changing. As of Monday, 25 people are allowed to gather.

"We don't know the circumstances and what to expect, but we still plan to do a first dance and speech. We want to do a livestream for anyone who can't be there," Citarella said.

Citarella recently had a Zoom bridal party with games. She said even though it was virtual, she was able to see people who live farther away who may have not been able to attend in person.

"We are definitely making the best of it," she said.

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Scotch Plains Bride Hosts Drive-In Porch Wedding Amid Coronavirus - Scotch Plains, NJ Patch