History is in the making at Coastal Carolina University, for the first time ever a student was married in the Lib Jackson Student Union.
The wedding took place virtually on Monday at 4 p.m. in the Military and Veteran Services office. The virtual ceremony included the bride, groom, an officiant and a witness.
The bride, a freshman public relations major, Ivy Gavieva, felt like now was the perfect time to get married to her fiancé, even if that meant they couldn’t have a ceremony in person.
“We just knew that we were right for each other and we were dating pretty seriously. When we were both here [at coastal] he decided to propose to me. Because he’s in another state right now, he’s in California, we had to do it online,” Gavieva said.
Gavieva met her now-husband while they were both working for the U.S. Embassy in her home country. He is currently in the military and is stationed at a base in California. Gavieva has plans to move to California with him after finishing her studies at CCU.
The officiant performing the online ceremony was from Utah. Utah is currently the only state that has a license to perform virtual ceremonies. Randy Burk, the director of military and veteran services, was also in attendance.
“So, they [the couple] found this company, and got in contact with them. She started coming to our Warrier Wednesday events and got to know Tim and asked him to be their witness,” Burk said.
Tim Daehnert, coordinator of military and veteran services, was the witness for this wedding. This was the first virtual wedding he had ever attended. He said that before this ceremony, he didn’t even know virtual ceremonies existed.
“I never thought that I’d ever see two people get married in this office,” Daehnert said.
Gavieva says that while this ceremony was small, she hopes to have a larger ceremony at some point in the future with the rest of her friends and family.
