Lucia Tam & Dominic Ma
Our wedding was a crazy adventure story written by God. Our wedding date was changed over six times, and we made the final change less than 24 hours before the actual event.
Lucia and I were introduced to each other by a friend in 2018, and we started dating shortly after we met. I was living in Australia at that time while Lucia resided in Hong Kong. Therefore we sustained our relationship by video calling every day to catch up and pray the rosary. We were engaged in 2019 and planned to have our wedding in 2020.
Having set a wedding date of 24 May 2020, I returned to Hong Kong from Melbourne in February for final preparations. Little did I know this would be my last visit for the next two years. SARS-Cov-2 [Covid-19] had started spreading around the world earlier that year. Soon after I returned to Melbourne in March, Australia closed its borders to foreign visitors then restricted Australian citizens from leaving the country. Hence, our May wedding was not going to happen.
In October 2020, I requested a travel exemption to return to Hong Kong but was rejected, so we were left to wait patiently for the restrictions to be lifted. At first, we pinned our hopes on the start of 2021, but the Delta variant plunged Australia into a new wave of infections and lockdowns. The date for re-opening the borders was nowhere in sight.
By 2021 we were growing anxious. How long could we maintain our relationship while staying separated? How long could we postpone our plans for a family? We were constantly pleading with God. We said many novenas together, even the 54-day novena to our Lady of Pompeii, which consists of four rosaries a day, hoping she would send immediate help to us! Around June that year, the idea that I needed to move back to Hong Kong permanently started dwelling in my head. If I quit my job and went back for an extended period, the authorities would let me leave Australia.
As I contemplated the idea of leaving Australia for good, things began to pick up. Australia would lift its border restrictions towards the end of the year. At the same time, Lucia’s work situation changed so that she might be ready to leave Hong Kong by mid-2022. A friend from my men’s prayer group suggested I take a few months off work instead of quitting, so with the support from my boss, I was able to take the first half of 2022 off.
With our new plans in hand, I booked plane tickets for January 5 and the accompanying 14-day quarantine in a hotel. We also changed our wedding date to February 19. In late November 2021, the Omicron variant started spreading around the world and a week later, the Hong Kong government decided Australian arrivals would now need to quarantine for 21 days. My hotel would not accommodate me for the extra days,and therefore, my travel had to be postponed to January 24, as that was the earliest hotel accommodation we could find. This would mean I would have barely five days to get ready for the wedding after days of quarantine!
The government rolled out more and more restrictions, and we began to worry they would affect our wedding plans. Stuck in my hotel room, all I could do was pray for the health of everyone on my floor [so that I could stay virus-free] and pray for the pandemic situation in the city
Unfortunately, things weren’t quite that straightforward. By late December, my airline, Cathay Pacific, was facing a staff shortage and cut all January flights from Melbourne. We quickly discovered there were no more direct flights to Hong Kong from Melbourne in January.
In a panic, we asked for huge prayer support and indeed, many friends expressed concern and offered their prayers. At the suggestion of a friend, I decided to return via Singapore, as I could travel there quarantine-free. One day after I booked the new plane ticket, Singapore paused its quarantine-free programme citing a rise in Omicron cases worldwide. But, I was allowed to travel since I had already bought the ticket. Lucia and I breathed a sigh of relief and thanked God [and our friend!] for the early heads up.
Although we managed to book a ticket, we were still anxious and kept checking the news every day in case of new regulation changes. We prayed fervently every day. Many friends were praying for us. A nun even arranged and offered nine Masses for us.
Despite the Christmas holiday, my last week in Australia was rather uneventful. The rising Covid-19 cases caused me to stay mostly at home, worried that I would become a close contact and prevent me from boarding my flight. Thankfully, I was able to enter Singapore without any issues.
I emerged from quarantine safely with God’s blessing and wasted no time getting ready for the wedding. Things were falling into place and we felt our wedding would finally happen after a long wait. February 19 couldn’t come quickly enough!
Once in Singapore, I quickly settled down, ready to spend the next 22 days there. The trip was greatly supported by Lucia’s uncle and cousin, who live in Singapore. Although I would rather have been in Hong Kong already, I felt might as well make the most of this forced holiday! That thought was short-lived, as just a few days into my Singapore trip, Hong Kong announced it would completely ban flights from several “high risk” countries, including Australia.
This did not affect our original plan, but we were wary of additional countries being added to the list, so we asked my quarantine hotel if there was an earlier vacancy. They told us I could come back on the January 7, a day before the new bans became effective. I quickly arranged for a Covid test and booked a new ticket within two hours. With everything in place, I arrived in Hong Kong on January 7, nearly two years since my last visit.
Now that I had finally set foot in the city, our focus turned to our wedding. The latest wave of Covid was spreading quickly in Hong Kong and, unlike previous waves, authorities could not contain it.
The government rolled out more and more restrictions, and we began to worry they would affect our wedding plans. Stuck in my hotel room, all I could do was pray for the health of everyone on my floor [so that I could stay virus-free] and pray for the pandemic situation in the city.
I emerged from quarantine safely with God’s blessing and wasted no time getting ready for the wedding. Things were falling into place and we felt our wedding would finally happen after a long wait. February 19 couldn’t come quickly enough!
Apparently, God didn’t want to wait either. On February 8, the government ordered all religious venues to be closed from February 10, even weddings could not proceed.
We spent a brief moment in despair when we heard the news. Again a friend’s mom, a devoted Catholic, came to our rescue. She casually suggested we get married the next day. It was a crazy yet brilliant idea!
We quickly called around to see whether we could pull it off: the priests were okay, the church was available, and all the documents were ready [the last document was literally completed that day].
Most importantly, I managed to visit the hairdresser to fix my lockdown hair! It was a green light from God! Our wedding finally had a confirmed date of February 9!
Because of the short notice, we initially thought it would be a small wedding with just our families. However, upon further texting around, many of our bridal party and church helpers could also make it.
Upon reflection, we realised our adventure was nothing short of a blessing in disguise. God somehow brought my arrival in Hong Kong forward so I could get married in a church on February 9 instead of quarantining alone in disappointment
Our wedding ceremony turned out almost as we planned, with far more guests than we could hope for on a Wednesday afternoon [though still within capacity limits].
We had two priests and two deacons concelebrating our Mass, choir singing and accompanied by an organ. We were able to dedicate flowers to Our Lady and take photos with our guests. None of these would have been possible the following day. Thanks be to God!
Upon reflection, we realised our adventure was nothing short of a blessing in disguise. God somehow brought my arrival in Hong Kong forward so I could get married in a church on February 9 instead of quarantining alone in disappointment.
The various changes in my itinerary prepared us to make the ultimate snap decision instead of instinctively postponing our wedding, which still would not have happened at the time of this writing.
We would also like to thank our many faithful friends who had prayed incessantly for us and dedicated countless masses to our cause. Your prayers were of great spiritual support to us and testimony to the power of prayer.
The six-times postponed wedding was brought to completion in God’s time with the good wine, indeed, with the intervention of Our Lady.
All glory and honour be to our God and Our Lady, who have shown us great mercy!
