CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Now more than ever, planning a wedding is certainly a stressful time for couples amid COVID-19. Especially if there is a business involved.
But one Charlotte couple made it work, and it's giving us reasons to smile.
The two local restaurant owners, just recently married, are turning lemons into lemonade.
“She keeps us grounded and she keeps us structured,” Jay Davis said.
“Jay Davis is the hopeless romantic,” said Miketa Davis.
Nearly one month ago, Jay Miketa Davis tied the knot at Team Vision Estates on Lake Wylie.
“He’s been dreaming of the moment of being married his entire life,” said Miketa Davis.
It wasn’t the Florida wedding with all of their family and friends like they originally planned but both were not going to let a global pandemic stop what was meant to be.
“It wasn’t until meeting him that the idea of having a family getting married meant anything to me,” said Miketa Davis.
The Maryland couple first met in Charlotte.
In 2019, they signed away the lease to their restaurant LuLu’s Maryland Style Chicken and Seafood and their original wedding venue on the same day.
Fast track to this year, COVID-19 changed their game plan, but the Davis’ were already ahead of the game.
“We established our worst-case scenarios and our best-case scenarios early,” said Jay Davis.
The couple decided it was best to switch to curbside pick-up even before Governor Roy Cooper ordered dining rooms to close.
“And that proved to be successful for us because as time went on we were easily adaptable to what was going on,” said Jay Davis.
As for their wedding?
“It did take us a while to say we weren’t going to do but we both knew at a minimum as long as it was him and I nothing else really mattered,” Miketa Davis said.
The newlyweds had to change everything from Miketa’s dress, hairstyle to the number of people who attended.
“Once we saw everything put together, it was perfect,” said Jay Davis.
So how did they manage to alter their business and wedding all together with coronavirus as the main guest?
“Where I slack she picks up and vice versa,” said Jay Davis.
“Start small, start with the simplest things, and what matters to you the most,” Miketa Davis.
The newlyweds still plan to hold a larger ceremony and reception for what will now be their one-year anniversary in 2021 at their original venue, the Waldorf Astoria Key West.