You may have seen their faces on Mothership, Chinese newspapers and other foreign websites. Being among the first couples to hold their wedding online during the circuit breaker, Amos and Natasha Pang’s Zoom ceremony made headlines.

While 400 guests attended their wedding online on May 17, 2020, their wedding video had more than 3,000 views on YouTube! 

The 29-year-olds sat down to share with us this story of struggle and success on their unique wedding experience.

Why did you guys decide to have an online wedding?

Natasha: We intended to get married on May 17. The date was important to us as it was our 17th monthsary!

When the circuit breaker was first announced (April 7-May 4), we still hung onto the hope that we could go ahead with a physical wedding.

But after the the circuit breaker was extended (ending June 1), that’s when we knew that we couldn’t go ahead. We then had to decide if we should postpone or go ahead with a smaller online wedding.

One of the big reasons we decided to go ahead was because Amos’ grandparents were getting on in age. We didn’t know how long it would take for the COVID-19 measures to lift for us to have a normal church ceremony.

So, instead of waiting indefinitely, we decided to go ahead so that Amos’ grandparents could witness their oldest grandson get married.

Were there any reservations about having an online wedding ceremony?

Natasha: I did struggle with going ahead with the online wedding because one of the requirements that the ROM (Registry of Marriages) gave us was that we all had to wear masks.

I know it sounds very silly but it was actually a deal-breaker for me. If I was going to spend that time, effort and money on my dress, makeup and hair, I didn’t want to ruin it all by wearing a mask. But that was something that I had to surrender to God.

After a few days of wrestling with Him, I did feel the assurance that I shouldn’t be focusing on myself. If we wanted the focus of our wedding to be on God, then it really shouldn’t be about me at all. I had to come to a place of being satisfied that my beauty didn’t lie in my physical beauty but the righteousness of Christ.

Amos: It’s so funny because usually when we surrender things to God, God just gives so much more back to us. She had friends who made the pretty mask for her to wear so she looked really pretty in it. (Turning to Natasha) I think you really looked great that day. I loved it.

What kind of adjustments did you have to make to your wedding plans?

Amos: There was obviously no gatecrash or wedding dinner, so we did lose all of the traditional Chinese wedding aspects. But we’re still planning on doing them after things settle down.

As for the wedding ceremony itself, I exported the plans we had for the church wedding and used Zoom to replace – and in some cases – enhance the original ideas!

For example, instead of walking down the aisle, we walked down our corridor outside our house and used different phones to highlight the different angles as the bride walked in with music played over Zoom.

Natasha: Although the bridal studio was able to courier my dress and veil to me, all the hair and makeup had to be done by my sister and me. We watched and read instructions online as well as bought random correct-sounding makeup and hair products.

Decorations were also cut down by a lot, but it turned out to be simple and, in my opinion, beautiful, which I loved.

How did you feel about the entire wedding and what feedback did you receive from guests?

Amos: We originally wanted to have the wedding in our church because we wanted to invite our friends who would not normally get the chance to hear about God. With the circuit breaker in place, we pondered long and hard about whether we should continue with our wedding. 

In the end, I was really touched because my colleagues and friends who attended our online ceremony said that, “yes, the intention of declaring God’s goodness came out very, very strong”.

From the song choice for our march-in to our testimony, videos and thanksgiving at the end, they felt it was very intentional, so I was very happy. 

Natasha: Being able to share the day with our guests was also very important to us. The breakout rooms in Zoom gave us the opportunity to go in and exchange a few words with our friends, so it did feel like they were there with us.

It was also good that we really had to focus on what was important because we had to scale down our wedding.

It wasn’t so much about how lavish the decorations were, the great music or other things. It was simply about us declaring the goodness of God in our lives. That was the main point that came through, so we were very happy about that.

How did you plan your wedding in such a way that you could achieve that? 

Amos: Our march-in song was an Indonesian song that talked about living a life that is glorifying and pleasing to God.

We also chose worship songs that were God-focused. While we had to cut it down to one song for the Zoom wedding, we chose “Goodness of God” to declare that all our lives – and even at that moment – God was still good.

In our videos, we not only featured our love story but also our church where we serve and love Him.

Finally in our thank you speech, we made sure to explain to our friends why our lives were lived as such – because God had given us all things through His Son Jesus Christ, we had decided to give our lives for the glory of His name.

What was the most memorable part of the wedding?

Amos: The prep! We were quite sad that our friends and even siblings could not be present due to the restrictions. But actually they did a lot of behind-the-scenes work during and before the wedding.

Natasha’s sister was the one toggling the slides, videos and songs; my brother helped to split people into breakout rooms for photos after the wedding ceremony; and my sister managed our wedding entrance and exit.

Natasha: We were also very encouraged and touched by our friends who helped ensure everything fell into place. We only got our approval to go ahead with our online wedding quite late, so we organised everything within two weeks.

For instance, I asked my friend for florist recommendations for my bridal bouquet, and she ended up choosing and buying it for us. I also had a friend who suddenly decided to send us the vines that we hung up as our backdrop.

Amos: We were supposed to have a world map as our backdrop, but it didn’t come. So the vines were a very nice addition!

During a technical run with our bridal party, they also noticed that our place was too dark, so they sent us spotlights and different things that could add value. We didn’t even think about these.

All we focused on our end was how we could glorify God, and yet God provided so many other things along the way so that He could be glorified. That was just amazing for us.

What advice do you have for couples who are thinking of holding an online wedding ceremony?

Amos: Ultimately, what’s important is that the wedding ceremony is a day but marriage is for a lifetime. We don’t want to compromise on the things that will really affect a marriage. 

Natasha: First of all, you need to be very clear about what your non-negotiables are.

For us, our non-negotiables were having our guests actively present with us, having our family involved, and definitely being able to glorify God. So when we felt that we were able to achieve that through the Zoom wedding, we felt that “yes, let’s go ahead with that”.