When Elizabeth Maia Wexler first met Eric Ryan Hollenberg, she did not see the lower half of his face.
The couple first connected in March 2020 through the dating app Bumble. They had sent sporadic messages for months when they discovered in June that the two of them happened to be vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and decided to meet up for a socially distant stroll in a park.
Although they kept their masks on and stayed two meters apart during their walk, they enjoyed spending time together and abandoned the need for more. The next day, Ms. Wexler and Mr. Hollenberg met at Lambert’s Cove Beach, where they spread a towel between them to make sure they were far enough apart.
“It was like a breath of fresh air,” said Hollenberg, 31, about his first dates with Mrs. Wexler.
They both lived in Manhattan, and when they returned that summer they saw each other more regularly. In the fall of 2020, the two of them spent most of their time together, dining outside or exploring Westchester County, NY, where Ms. Wexler’s parents live. (Mr. Hollenberg’s parents live in Livingston, NJ)
“We were our most natural selves,” says Ms. Wexler, 31. “It was so easy.”
That winter they returned to Martha’s Vineyard for about two months, celebrating their two birthdays together.
“We joked that we felt like an old married couple,” said Hollenberg. “It just felt so natural.”
After that trip, they started talking about their future, and in April 2021 the two moved in Manhattan together. A few months later, they selected an engagement ring. In July 2021, Mr. Hollenberg suggested on another visit to Martha’s Vineyard. But Ms. Wexler said she had already started planning a wedding before they got engaged.
She is a graduate of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the founder of Emlan Events, a Manhattan wedding and event planning company. Mr. Hollenberg is a graduate of Suffolk University in Boston and the founder of Third Ave Studios, a Manhattan branding agency.
The couple knew they wanted a brief engagement and soon chose Shun Lee West, a Manhattan restaurant, as the venue for their winter 2021 wedding set. The guest list was 150.
Ms. Wexler looked forward to working with a group of vendors she had come to know throughout her career. But when the Omicron variant of the coronavirus started to sweep New York City, it started to worry. A few days before their wedding, Mrs. Wexler and Mr. Hollenberg decided to cancel the planned big celebration.
“It’s just incredibly ironic that Omicron’s wedding planner’s plans were completely blown up,” said Ms. Wexler. But the couple knew they still wanted to get married and instead decided to have a much smaller meeting that same day.
“It’s not about the hoopla,” she said. “It’s about getting married.”
In less than a week, Ms. Wexler and her team were planning a second celebration for about 35 close friends and family members of the couple, all of whom had been vaccinated and tested negative for Covid-19.
The two were married on December 23 at their parents’ home in Rye, NY, in a ceremony presided over by Rabbi Jeffrey Segelman.
“Our life is better and more fulfilling with one another,” said Ms. Wexler. “It’s just really just the greatest blessing in the world to have each other and have a really strong relationship.”
About her reduced celebration, Mr. Hollenberg said: “I just think it’s so fitting. We met during Covids. “