When Marika Sévigny’s twin sister, Danica, married in October 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 epidemic, the newlyweds were forced to have their first dance in a parking lot, using music from Sévigny’s iPhone.

Sévigny knew she wanted to offer pandemic brides and grooms the chance to experience a vital wedding moment they’d missed out on when it came time for her own wedding to Shahnoor Ullah in October 2022.

Sévigny invites couples who wed during the epidemic to have their first dance at her and Ullah’s wedding in a TikTok video that their videographer, Henjo Films, posted.

“Let’s all please take a moment for our newlyweds,” Sévigny says in the video, which had 1 million views as of Wednesday.

“It was so important for us to celebrate our friends and family and do it together,” Sévigny told Insider. “During the pandemic, everyone suffered and missed out on something. “We wanted [our wedding] to be a celebration of love and support, with others coming together to say, ‘Look, we made it to the other side.'”

At least five other couples who attended their wedding had married during the epidemic, in addition to her sister and brother-in-law. Some of the weddings she attended through Zoom, while others she did not.

“It was really sad not to be able to celebrate with them and soak in that joy you have during the first dance,” she added. “As soon as I found out I was getting married, that was one of the first things I wanted to do.”

The couples danced to Taylor Swift’s “Lover,” which they had no idea about beforehand. To allow themselves some alone time, the bride and groom waited a minute before joining their pals on the dance floor.

“It was important to show them the love they were showing Sha and me that day,” she explained. “It was a gift to them of a moment they probably wished for but didn’t get.”

The Insider was informed by videographer Henry Shephard that he had never seen anything like it at a wedding.

“It really pulled on everyone’s heartstrings at the time, and it was a beautiful moment that you could tell the couples appreciated,” he added.

The couple got engaged in March 2019 after meeting in 2015 while Sévigny was a medical student and Ullah was a senior resident in Toronto. They formally married a few months later in a nikkah, a Muslim ceremony, at their house with a dozen close ones, but they planned a grander celebration in 2020. Then came COVID-19.

Both are doctors and due to the demands of their employment during the epidemic, they did not resume planning until spring 2022.

“We didn’t care about the day or the flowers; we just wanted somewhere to celebrate with everyone,” Sévigny explained.

Finally, on October 6, 2022, 100 guests, including their dog, Moose, joined them for the celebration at the Elora Mill Hotel in Ontario, Canada. Sévigny expressed her gratitude that their wedding video had reached so many more people online, but she also knows why.

“You realize all the things you may have missed out on during those years — a prom, a trip, seeing your family,” she explained. “Everyone lost something during those years, and we’ve all realized that we’re on the other side of it now.” “Love endures.”