Milwaukee couple says 'I do' even though most of their family and friends have to watch on a livestream

Only 10 people witnessed in-person the marriage of Kevin Kenkel and Katie O’Connor at Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church on Saturday.

Another 224 people watched on a livestream.

Such is the reality of saying “I do” during a pandemic.

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Close friends who wanted to be there but didn’t want to violate the 10-person gathering ban watched on their smartphones in cars parked outside the church.

“It’s been a whirlwind of a couple of weeks,” Kenkel said.

Across the street from the church, people were driving up to do curbside early voting at the Zeidler Municipal Building near City Hall just as the couple exited the church. Everyone honked their horns. The Hop happened to turn the corner in front of the church and it too joined in the celebration.

Parents were able to attend, and the couple had a wedding photographer to immortalize the day.

The small bridal party posed for pictures — standing at least 6 feet away from each other, of course.

A reception, which had been planned at the Pfister Hotel, will have to wait for another day.

“We postponed our reception but we still wanted to get married today,” O’Connor said.

The couple met after college through a mutual friend at a Milwaukee Brewers game.

O’Connor, a Chicago Cubs fan, and Kenkel, a Brewers fan, got to know each other and fell in love through baseball.

“We were supposed to go to opening day this week to start off our wedding weekend,” Kenkel said. “Unfortunately that got postponed, too.”

It would have been perfect, as the Cubs and Brewers were going to play each other at Miller Park to start the season.

The wedding rehearsal was going to be at Good City Brewing, but that had to be called off, too.

“Instead we did a curbside pickup and got a six pack and some fish fries and the two of us did it in our living room,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor, a teacher with Milwaukee Public Schools, said it has been a little fun being creative in finding ways to still get married while everything is closed and people don’t want to leave their homes.

“I’ve had a lot of weeks off to reconfigure the plans,” O’Connor said.

Along the way, there was some concern that the bridesmaid dresses would not arrive because they were coming from China, but they made it.

And on the wedding day, the bride wore her white dress, the groom put on his tux and everyone wore a smile, even though it was drizzling outside.

“If we can get through this we can get through anything,” O’Connor said.