CHARLESTON — In the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, many big events have been called off, including weddings.
But one Kanawha County couple was able to have their wedding day thanks to Skype and Kanawha Circuit Judge Joanna Tabit.
Court officials have discovered during the pandemic that many events, other than jury trials, can be held virtually, from weddings to a Juvenile Drug Court graduation, Tabit said.
"It was logistically a little bit different because a lot of times, folks will just walk up to the courthouse to get married, but this couple had been planning this and they were understanding that the building had to close and that we were restricting access," Tabit said in an interview with The West Virginia Record. "We didn’t see them, but they had to bring us their marriage license and I needed to sign off on that and see that it got to the county clerk’s office."
Tabit said she was mindful of the procedures.
"We had them drop the license off with our security folks," Tabit said. "We did everything else just the way we normally do it, except they were at home and we were here."
Tabit said as long as people have access to the court system, not everything has to happen in person.
"We can and have been doing everything but jury trials," Tabit said. "The key is to be able to do what it is that we do safely."
The Kanawha County Courthouse reopened on May 15, but public access is still restricted.
"In Kanawha County, we are back in the building, but we are still restricting public access," Tabit said. "We are being mindful of those types of procedures and everyone is getting temperature-checked and signing in and whatnot, but I think we will be doing a lot of these in the future."
Tabit said the couple had been together a long time and were ready to get married.
The bride, Stacy Balderas, said she and Justin Deskins initially had planned to get married in March, but then the pandemic hit.
"We’ve been together going on nine years, and we have two kids together," Balderas told the The West Virginia Record. "We met on a dating website, and we’d been so caught up in raising our kids that we just never did it."
When the opportunity came about to be married by Tabit, " I said, ‘let's just do it.’" Bladara said. "I was totally down for a video wedding because I didn’t have to go out and drag my kids out. It was great."
Balderas loved the Skype wedding.
"We may do a post-pandemic get together with the family — like a celebration, but we are pretty satisfied we got to get married and get it done since we have been together for so long," she said.