A couple in India decided to move ahead with their wedding despite the bride having tested positive for coronavirus.
Traditional India wedding garments were replaced with hazmat suits - also worn by guests and the presiding priest.
The bride tested positive for the virus hours before her wedding. With everything already prepared, the couple decided to push through. The wedding was held in the courtyard of the city of Baran's COVID-19 quarantine center, where the bride was being admitted.
Organizers made the ceremony as traditional as possible - with the exception of the protective gear. The bride and groom wore matching blue hazmat suits, face masks and visors while the priest wore a white hazmat suit and matching hood.
Traditional wedding songs were played in the background, while the priest chanted verses from Hindu scriptures. Guests said that the entire scene felt "otherworldly" as everyone looked like astronauts.
The bride's entire family was also placed under quarantine after they had tested positive for the coronavirus. The couple had no other choice but to move the ceremony to the quarantine center.
Baran health official Rajendra Meena told reporters that they had agreed for the couple to hold the ceremony but only under certain conditions. One of the conditions was that the groom will agree to be confined to the quarantine center after the ceremony was finished.
"We consulted with the families and they agreed to get married in the quarantine center without any elaborate rituals," Rajendra said.
Traditional India weddings are often elaborate and extremely crowded. Family members and extended relatives are typically all invited to celebrate. However, several states have banned such gatherings since the start of the pandemic.
Authorities have limited the number of guests in weddings and other social gatherings across the nation, which ranks second as the country with the highest number of coronavirus cases after the U.S. India currently has around 9.7 million positive cases, while the U.S. has about 15.3 million cases as of Tuesday.
