Dear Friends and Family, Elliot and I have come to the difficult decision that our wedding celebration with you all must be cancelled. We had hoped that by today, we would have more clarity and better news regarding actions being taken to curb the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, with the continuation of stay-at-home orders and the closing of businesses, there is no way that we can effectively host a celebration. We remain committed to celebrating our marriage on May 30, 2020 with our priest, and with luck, we hope our parents will join and serve as our witnesses. This has been incredibly difficult to realize, and while we certainly feel a sense of loss, we can’t begin to express how grateful we are for the love and support you have been showing us with your letters and gifts during these trying times. Each note we have received has brought us a beautiful moment of joy and allowed us to feel closer to you despite our mandatory separation. We truly look forward to thanking you in person when the time comes! Planning this wedding, with all of the moving parts - the fun décor, flowers, music, food – has been a once in a lifetime experience, and having everything become so drastically and uncontrollably simplified has allowed us to find ourselves re-focused on the true essence of the moment: Elliot and I can’t wait to exchange our vows and commit to a life together as we navigate these strange yet beautiful times. Thank you again for your love and support, and we can’t wait to see you all wherever life next finds us together. All of our love, Holly & Elliot

Dear Friends and Family, We appreciate your patience and support as we navigate the challenge of wedding planning in the midst of a pandemic. It is impossible to predict how things will look by the end of May, but one thing is clear – we do not want to risk anyone’s health for the sake of our ceremony. We also understand the emotional and financial impacts of having schools closed, work schedules changed, and lives generally upheaved. In light of all this, we would like to update you on the plans for our wedding. We have decided that given our timeline and impending move to San Diego this summer, it is not practical to set a new date for our wedding. We will be keeping our ceremony date of May 30, 2020, as our priest has graciously offered to still administer our vows under the circumstances. We hope that by late May the pandemic curve will have been flattened enough to ease restrictions on social gatherings. We are also hopeful that venues in Ithaca will have been able to reopen and recover by this time, so that we have a location in which to gather. However, this seems unlikely. We will have to wait and see. We would like to emphasize two things. First, we do not want anyone to feel obligated to attend the wedding. We understand that making plans right now is difficult, and that health and safety come first. Second, if restrictions on social gathering have been lightened in time for our wedding, there may not be any local venues capable of hosting a large gathering of people. We hope that the Argos Inn will be back up and running, but we cannot know at this point. If you are still planning to join us in Ithaca, we will need to determine if there is, in fact, anywhere to gather. So, if you can join us, and it is possible for us to gather, and we do have a venue in which to gather...then we can’t wait to celebrate with you! Please check for another update on May 1st! All the love, Holly & Elliot

Hello everyone - if you are here then you are probably looking for information and trying to decide (to the extent that any decisions are within our power at the moment) whether or not you will be able to attend our wedding. As the pandemic situation continues to evolve, we are coming to the realization that our celebration plans may need to change. We are not yet at that point, but are anticipating it. For now, please do not feel pressure to RSVP by the mentioned date (10 April). We will share updates here and do our best to reach out personally if there are any major changes. Until then, we wish everyone good health and safe social distancing practices! All the love, Holly & Elliot

Elliot and Holly met during graduate school in Ithaca, where they played for rival soccer teams. Holly was an avid consumer of trance music while Elliot listened to some kind of beeboppyskeedop something or other. After initially claiming that she "does not do coffee breaks", Holly finally agreed to grab a cup with Elliot one afternoon...and the rest is history. No really, he had her at "I study sea stars, want to see them?". Throughout the next three years, there were moves from Ithaca to Chicago, then back from Chicago to Ithaca. Travel to the West and East coasts in search of sea stars, catching birds on islands, and chasing bats in Africa. There was the birth of Pangur the cat. There has been great joy in getting to bond with each other's families. During this time, Holly and Elliot realized that they share similar tastes in (bad) pop country music, cooking difficult meals, taking on unnecessary projects, and walking cats on leashes (pre-Pangur Elliot: "I will never walk a cat on a leash"). They take coffee breaks together pretty much all the time now, and play on both each other's soccer teams. They cannot wait to celebrate their wedding with everyone and to continue tackling life together as a married couple.