Tommy Gelok and Kevin Tressler had been looking forward to their theater-themed wedding for more than a year, when they woke up on a recent weekday morning to emails and texts from friends and relatives informing them that they might have to share the spotlight.
The royal family had announced that the undoubtedly most-watched wedding of 2018 — Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s nuptials — will be taking place the same day as Gelok and Tressler’s own ceremony: May 19. “We had this date for 18 months and they just sort of waltzed in and took it,” Gelok said in a recent phone interview.
Tressler said he’d been keeping an eye on royal news since last month when Kensington Palace first announced that Markle and Prince Harry would marry in May, to see if the royals would pick their date. The two said they’ll probably look back fondly on the date coincidence in a few years, particularly given that their friends and family are joking that their own wedding is a bit over the top — they’re getting married on a stage in an old theater. But their reaction wasn’t quite as reasonable when they first heard the news.
“My initial reaction was I’m completely annoyed by that because of course I want all of the attention that day,” Tressler, 36, joked.
Courtesy of Kevin Tressler and Tommy Gelock.
Still, the two plan to incorporate a nod to the royal nuptials, perhaps in their favors, but they’re going to make sure their wedding is prioritized — including by reminding their wedding party there’s no need to discuss anyone else’s wedding during their celebration. “The only person whose dress really matters on that day, is my mother’s dress,” Gelok, 28, quipped.
The couple is one of thousands likely looking for creative ways to share their own special day with a global wedding television event. So far, more than 14,000 couples are scheduled to get married on May 19, according to wedding industry website The Knot. That number is likely to grow as the date gets closer, given that the third weekend in May is historically the most popular weekend of the month to wed, according to the company — last year 20,716 couples married on May 20th.
Whether the royal wedding will affect other couples sharing the wedding date depends on a variety of factors, including the timing of Markle and Prince Harry’s nuptials, the location of other couples’ weddings and the attitude of the couple and their guests toward the event, said Meghan Ely, the owner of OFD consulting, a wedding industry consulting firm.
If Markle and Prince Harry get married in the morning — as is typical for royal weddings — it likely won’t interfere with the timing of most weddings in the U.S., which is...