In the summer of 2019, Chase McAlpine, B.A. 2009, and Lisa Kovacic got engaged in front of the U.S. Capitol Building. They began planning a large wedding with nearly 250 guests from all over the country. 

This spring, they had to update their wedding website with the announcement that they were postponing their wedding due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the pandemic couldn’t put a damper on their love. The couple’s families joined forces to plan a “drive-by” wedding on April 18, the date they planned for all along. 

The bride wore her white wedding dress featuring a drop waist A-line skirt covered in yards of ruffles. McAlpine was dressed in a suit and bow tie. They stood in his mother-in-law’s front yard in Ashburn, Va., as friends and family drove by playing music and waving signs to celebrate their marriage. 

Kim Sgueo, Kovacic’s mother, had friends and family help her decorate her garage and lawn with items from their homes. She hung sheets and Christmas lights in the garage to create a soft backdrop for the reception. 

“We had no idea the magnitude of what they had planned,” McAlpine said. “We were expecting a small ceremony in the garage at Lisa’s parents’ house. What we got, though, was a beautiful outdoor ceremony with neighbors watching from a distance and an 80-plus-car drive-by of friends and family.” 

Among the guests was a news crew from the D.C.-based ABC7. 

“When the news crew arrived, it was just another in a long line of surprises that day,” McAlpine said. 

“The day was not what we had planned, but it surpassed our wildest dreams!” McAlpine works for the Defense Department, and the former Tower photographer still shoots weddings in his free time. His wife Lisa is a first grade teacher in Loudoun County. The couple resides in Sterling, Va.

— M.M.H.