Altered ceremony, same vows for East County couple

For East County’s Conner Przybylowicz and Spencer Young, May 16 started like an ordinary day.

They woke up and made themselves breakfast. They spent time cleaning up their home and then began working on their cars, a common passion between them.

It wasn’t supposed to be that way.

May 16 was their wedding day. Their big wedding day.

COVID-19 changed everything.

They had expected to be busy from sunrise while preparing for a ceremony with 100 guests at La Belle in Tampa. The pandemic postponed those plans.

It didn’t, however, stop the wedding.

After they worked on their cars, Conner had her hair done, the only hint this day was not going to be average.

Then at 5 p.m., they arrived at a property owned by Spencer’s parents —Todd and Kimberly Mullins — in Sarasota’s Desoto Acres.

Conner’s parents, Tom and Lucie Przybylowicz, joined the Mullins while the couple’s siblings — Gaelen, Ayden and Ian Przybylowicz and Sumner and Stefanie Mullins — also attended the small, intimate wedding ceremony.

Conner and Spencer exchanged their vows in an entirely different setting than the one they had planned, but the emotions weren’t any different.

While saying her vows, Conner was a mess. She had to take pauses to catch her breath as tears streamed down her face. “It was exciting from that moment forward,” she said. “It was a whirlwind. It was like we blinked, and it went by.”

The couple had been waiting since their December 2018 engagement to have the perfect wedding. Former classmates at Sarasota High School, they both were working (in different locations) for Starbucks but didn’t know they were working for the same company until a 2014 company celebration.

“Spencer is her book end,” said Lucie Przybylowicz, Conner’s mother. “They are a match set. They are perfect for each other.”

When COVID-19 started causing concern in March, the couple remained hopeful that if people quarantined and the coronavirus was contained, everything would work out for their wedding.

“I was in a little bit of denial,” Conner said. “I remember we went to dinner one night, and I was telling Spencer hopefully everyone’s going to try to limit their interactions, and by May 16, which was four weeks away [from the wedding], everything will be back to normal, and we’ll be totally fine.”

It wasn’t fine.

Restaurants and bars were forced to close. Gov. Ron DeSantis then called for a stay-at-home order to begin April 3 that would last until May 4.

On April 18, the couple postponed their wedding.

The families were devastated. All the work that went into planning the big day would have to wait. They rescheduled the reception for Aug. 15.

“We were super lucky our venue is all inclusive, so we were working with a lot of their vendors, and the vendors have gone above and beyond to accommodate us,” Conner said.

Every little detail was planned from the white- and purple-colored ice cream to match their color scheme to the fresh floral feel on the invitations.

When they had to postpone the reception, they realized their wedding license was set to expire May 16. They decided to go with an intimate ceremony.

“We thought even with a pandemic, we’re going to let love win,” Conner said.

The newlyweds were glad the way it worked out.

“It sounds cliche, but we could have been standing in a field of no one or a city full of millions of people, and the only person I really noticed was her,” Spencer said. “It’s a strange feeling to have a wedding ring on. I’ve never worn jewelry up until [May 16]. The weight that comes with being married is an awesome responsibility.”