Change of Plans

Amy Carrington was ready for her wedding — it was all planned.  The events manager for the Sarasota Ballet knew exactly how she and her fiancee Scott Carrington would be married. All together there were  around 150 guests — family and friends all — filling an expansive airplane hangar to celebrate a union of trust and love. And most importantly, they were ready for the date: April 11. 

But plans change, sometimes drastically. As the COVID-19 pandemic reached Florida and social distancing rules became increasingly strict, their wedding plans shifted quite a bit. 

“It felt like every single time we made a decision to move forward that, within 24 hours, something else would change it,” she said.

Today, Amy and Scott Carrington are happily married. But it took a smaller guest list, a drastic venue change and a whole lot of effort to get there. 

The newlyweds met in the best of ways — at a soccer game in St. Petersburg around two years ago. They both laugh about how it was a long time coming. 

“In the years prior, we had been at the same concerts, the same Raptors games,” Scott Carrington said. “The fact that we had never met was mind-blowing.” 

It was fitting, then, that Scott Carrington would propose to Amy Carrington much in the same environment. He surprised Amy Carrington with a ring at a soccer team holiday party last December. It was Friday the 13th. 

Something important to the both of them was that Amy Carrington’s father would be the one to walk her down the aisle. Scott Carrington had asked her father for permission this past September. He and Amy Carrington decided on an April wedding date, where there was enough time to plan but not quite getting into a brutal Florida summer. 

Four months to plan a wedding may seem like too little time to some, but Amy Carrington has connections in the events industry to help move things along. But even that faster speed couldn't outpace the quickly-spreading virus. The invites went out in February, but the conversations about the virus became serious in March. 

Florida's social distancing guidelines cut their planned 150 guests down to 50, at which point they decided to host a smaller affair at Michael’s Wine Cellar. Soon after, Florida’s restaurants started shutting down — Michael’s On East being one of them. The duo decided to move back to the hangar and have a quick, two-hour affair with relatives, a cake and a toast.

But even that was scrapped when the state advised against groups of more than 10 assembling, followed by a mandatory lockdown announcement. At that point, it was something of a race against time according to Amy Carrington. Amy and Scott Carrington decided to host a wedding ceremony at their home April 2, just days before the lockdown. Amy Carrington bought plants and orchids from Publix, while Scott Carrington picked up ferns from Home Depot — they both cleaned the house and set about turning it into a wedding venue. The pair hung Christmas lights on the stairwell and ceiling and had flower bouquets.

“This was planned on being our like five to 10 year house,” Scott Carrington said.  “It will make selling the house a lot harder because of the memory now in this house of us getting married ... There’s no one else I would have rather gone through this with than her.”

The wedding ceremony had close family celebrating Scott and Amy in their redecorated living room. On the planned April 11 date, Amy and Scott put on their wedding clothes again and had a live stream reception where they had their first wedding dance.

“At the end of the day, it's about being married,” Amy Carrington said. “It's not about the big party that you put on or the grand gesture in the grand scheme of things … it's about us.”