Lauren Jopling and Blake Smith Find the Silver Linings to a Pandemic Wedding

By Jessica Otte

Lauren Jopling and Blake Smith
September 26, 2020

When Blake Smith asked his girlfriend, Lauren Jopling, to go to the Dallas Arboretum on a hot, humid June afternoon, her response was something to the tune of, “Thanks, but no thanks.” When he returned with flowers, she got the message—and in the near-empty Arboretum, a ring. Forced to cut their guest list in the face of COVID-19, they communicated the change to those who had already received a save-the-date—“the uninvitation,” Lauren jokes—and did their best to soldier on with a positive attitude. “I consider myself a pretty level-headed person, and I’ve never been so emotional,” Lauren admits. “The uncertainty was the hard part, and the weight of having to make a decision for so many people who all think you should do something different.” Once wedding weekend rolled around, that stress melted away, and the pair found some silver linings in the scaled-down affair. Recalls Lauren: “Blake and I were able to really be present in moments where we may have been distracted.”

Click here to see how other couples pivoted their wedding plans in the face of COVID-19.