Bride-to-be and Menlo Park resident Meghan Duff had picked out her dress at Rin's Bridal in San Carlos, woken up at midnight on March 3 to secure an appointment for the ceremony and had booked her honeymoon departure for April 7 to Paris and Italy, but the coronavirus outbreak would put an unexpected damper on her and fiancé Kevin Fernandez's plans.

The couple, both 39, had to press pause on their April 3 wedding. They were set to say "I do" in a small civil ceremony at San Francisco City Hall, then dine with 11 immediate family members at The Commissary restaurant, but wedding ceremonies are no longer being performed at City Hall because of the coronavirus.

"We really do want to get married and have those that are close to us present," Duff said, but her family members are in high-risk health categories and she's not sure when shelter-in-place orders will be lifted. "Our plans are up in the air, but we're being good sports about it."

Duff said the couple plans to marry "as soon as it's safe to do so" and can have a few family members to celebrate.

Duff is an executive assistant to the CEO at Impossible Foods in Redwood City and lives near the Dutch Goose in West Menlo Park. She met Fernandez on Match.com two years ago. He proposed in the early morning hours of Christmas Eve, and they celebrated after the holidays with wine tasting in Healdsburg. She said they were lucky they weren't planning a large wedding that would have required them to tell 100 guests it was canceled.

"Knowing that we're not the only couple going through something like this — it helps," she said. "Still, it's sentimental."

Finding a way to celebrate

When April 3 rolled around, they figured out a way to mark the date that would have been their wedding day.

The couple heard Kelli Agnich was photographing Menlo Park residents on their front porches (from at least 10 feet away) and thought it might be fun to dress up and do a similar shoot.

"We popped some champagne and were able to capture a fun moment," she said. "We have some fun photos to look back on. Afterwards, our neighbors came out on their porches and had champagne on their ends.

"Capturing those photos and having a reason to get dressed up was uplifting, considering most of the days we're living in our sweats."

Although Duff and Fernandez have been able to get refunds on most things — her deposit for dinner at The Commissary, hair and makeup, and the photographer — they'll only get a voucher for honeymoon airfare when they would have preferred a refund.

The couple's marriage license expires April 16, and they're not sure how San Francisco County will handle that. As of last week, the City Clerk's Office had advised Duff over email to hold on to their marriage license for now, saying that the county was in touch with the state about how to handle licenses for people who planned to marry during the shelter-in-place order. (The Almanac has put in a request with the county to determine if licenses will be extended in light of the virus outbreak.)

The pair haven't decided when they'll tie the knot, but want to wait until "we could go out and get married by someone else and not be wearing face masks."

"If it's another five months, the two of us will just go do it," she said.

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Find comprehensive coverage on the Midpeninsula's response to the new coronavirus by the Almanac, Mountain View Voice and Palo Alto Online here.