Virus wreaks wedding chaos for Lockyer couple

COVID-19 border closures have left a family, best man, bridesmaid stranded, but this Lockyer couple have an ingenious way to keep big day on track.

Tania Blake and Neville Grainger have planned their wedding for October but Neville's family is stuck in New South Wales.

LIVE streaming, last-minute bookings and ruthlessly uninviting loved ones: These are just some of the realities involved in a mid-pandemic wedding.

As any married couple would know, planning a wedding is laborious in the best of times, let alone in the midst of an unfolding global pandemic.

But, as a Regency Downs couple have found, navigating a once-in-a-century viral event only makes matters worse.

Tania Blake and Neville Grainger, who became engaged on Christmas, are planning their wedding for October.

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“(Neville) said he didn’t want to be sitting around waiting to get married for three years, he wanted to do it within 12 months,” Tania said.

“So we basically started planning straight away.”

Neville has had to cancel his Buck’s night and Tania has had to cancel her Hen’s.

Neville has had to cancel his Buck’s night and Tania has had to cancel her Hen’s.

They locked in the wedding date for October 19 after restrictions in Queensland began to ease but now, with only eight weeks before the special day, restrictions have begun to tighten once again as new outbreaks emerge in southeast Queensland.

“We booked in, paid for everything and now the borders are closed again,” the bride-to-be Tania said.

With closed state borders, members of the bridal party and family members have been left with no choice but to miss the wedding.

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Neville’s parents and siblings, who are based in New South Wales, are now unable to cross the border due to the cost involved with mandatory quarantine.

“It’s his mum and dad, his brother and his brother’s wife and their three kids … It’s our best man and bridesmaid, as well,” Tania said.

“They can’t get up here because they can’t afford the time off work to isolate for two weeks up here before the wedding and then go home and self-isolate again.”

Tania and Neville are planning to livestream their wedding so family can tune in from New South Wales.

Now Tania and Neville plan to livestream their wedding so family can tune in from New South Wales.

The couple, who have now been together for three and a half years, also plan to have their livestream made into a DVD.

“We’re going to set up a TV and computer and try and Zoom with them and have them all together so they can be there for the service,” Tania said.

“The hardest part is, we don’t know what the internet service is going to be like where we are getting married.”

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Even if it works at their home, the wedding venue in Laidley might be a different story.

“When we set up out there, we might not be able to do it – it might not be good enough internet service – I don’t know,” Tania said.

“We are trying to find someone who has a video camera who can possibly do a video for us that we can put on DVD for them.”

Read more news by Ebony Graveur.

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