An “All Kinds of Weather” Wedding

A wedding through a pandemic and four kinds of weather. love really does conquer all.

Abbey Elizabeth Rumbold & William Wesley Cox
Parkersburg | 1.16.21

photographed by The Oberports

Abbey and Wes found each other among the thousands in attendance at a Dr. P and Flux Pavilion concert in Covington, Kentucky, even though they had grown up just across the Ohio River from one another. After a few years of dating, Wes, a native of Parkersburg, proposed to Abbey, originally from Marietta, Ohio, at the couple’s favorite brewery, in Norwich, Connecticut.

They chose to exchange vows in a Catholic ceremony at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Parkersburg. The bride wore an ivory-colored A-line gown with textured lace and an appliquéd bodice and hemline and carried a cascading bouquet of florals and greenery. The groom wore a navy blue tuxedo with a blue and green tartan bow tie. They were pronounced husband and wife by a stand-in priest, since theirs had recently tested positive for COVID-19. A reception with family and friends included dinner and dancing and the carving of a two-tiered white wedding cake with ribbon-edged frosting.

Guest favors included personalized sanitizer bottles and wipes and surgical masks printed with “Distance is temporary; love is forever.” The entire wedding party was masked through the ceremony and reception, and the groom’s glasses fogged up so badly that the bride wasn’t sure he saw her in her wedding gown until she got directly in front of him at the altar. The wedding day delivered almost every kind of weather one could imagine: snow in the morning, cloud cover for the afternoon, pellet-sized hail during photos, and sunshine for the reception. Both felt afterward that the varied weather patterns made for amazing photos. The couple took a wedding trip to York, Maine, before settling into married life together in Parkersburg, where Abbey works as a physician assistant and Wes is a submarine officer in the U.S. Navy.

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