Swine flu wedding: Flu can't stop lovesick couple

New meaning given to the vow: 'In sickness and in health'

June 19, 2009|By Megan Twohey, Tribune reporter

The Chicago couple got the jarring phone message less than 48 hours before they were scheduled to walk down the aisle.

"The doctor said: 'It's not going to be the wedding you wanted. You tested positive for swine flu. Give me a call if you have any questions,'" Jeremy Fierstien said with a chuckle Thursday, recalling the moment last week when his wedding plans encountered a slight hitch.

Fierstien and his fiance, Ilana Jackson, both 26, had been concerned about the vomiting, achy limbs and burning fever that had taken hold of them. But they assumed the sickness would put only a slight damper on the wedding ceremony and reception planned Sunday at North Suburban Synagogue Beth El in Highland Park.

They never suspected swine flu and had even laughed at its comical possibility.

"We joked about it," said Jackson, a graduate psychology student at Roosevelt University. "Like, 'Wouldn't it be funny if we had swine flu?'"

Shocked as they were, the couple decided to move forward with their plan after doctors assured them they wouldn't put their guests at serious risk.

"We were determined to make the most of a bad situation," said Fierstien, who suspects he contracted the flu while traveling to Chicago from Boston, where he has been studying to become a rabbi.

Some slight, last-minute changes were required.

The professional hairstylist and makeup artist Jackson had hired refused to touch her. So at the last minute she recruited a friend to help.

At the instruction of doctors, the bride and groom stayed 10 feet away from all guests at all times.

Instead of walking down the aisle, Jackson and Fierstien walked around the guests.

They couldn't dance.

And throughout the ceremony they wore surgical masks and latex gloves. So did some of the guests.

"It was definitely a little different than the weddings you're used to," said Ilana Branda, 27, a longtime friend of the bride, who was brave enough to ignore the 10-feet rule to wish the couple congratulations but not brave enough to hug her.

The party favors, she said, were hand sanitizers.

Nearly five days later, as they continue to recover in their Lakeview apartment, the couple can't help but marvel at how the wedding unfolded.

The guests told them to give it a few years and they'd laugh about it, Jackson said.

"I'm, like, give me a few weeks," she said. "Was it unfortunate? Yes. Disappointing? Yes. But we've had a really good attitude about it."