While the COVID-19 pandemic forced the postponement of weddings for so many couples in 2020, Brannen McMahan and Bailey Fuqua made their dream come true with different plans but the same true love.
After a two-year courtship, McMahan and Fuqua had planned for 350 guests to attend an April 4, 2020, wedding at an antebellum home outside Birmingham. On March 13, just two weeks away from the big day, coronavirus restrictions closed the venue, which altered plans drastically.
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