- Natalie Lamb Esfahani and Shervin Esfahani canceled their $35,000
wedding due to the coronavirus. - In July, they bought a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van with their leftover wedding money and converted it into a
tiny house on wheels. - Once it was completed, the couple held a vow ceremony outside the van, and they are now traveling in it for their honeymoon.
Natalie Lamb Esfahani and Shervin Esfahani had their dream wedding planned, with all the details booked and 100 guests ready to attend. Then the coronavirus hit.
As the May 2 wedding date approached, the couple, who met online eight years ago, decided to cancel it.
"The more I thought about it, I realized it's not the right thing to do," Natalie told Insider of the wedding. "We would be putting people at risk, as they feel obligated to come."
After going through "all the stages of grief," the couple decided to use the money they had left from the wedding to live out their dream of owning a part-time tiny house. Over the course of two months during the lockdown, the Baltimore couple converted a
At first, renovating the camper van was a distraction and gave the couple 'a new sense of purpose'
Their wedding was expected to cost $35,000, and they put $15,000 into deposits, much of which they lost.
"It was a financial loss and an emotional loss of not being able to celebrate with our family and friends," Natalie said. "Your wedding is the one time you get both sides of your family together. We lost that opportunity. That was tough for me to swallow."
To help them handle the loss, she and Shervin decided to go all-in on their dream of building a camper van. They have followed the tiny house community for years and, after doing a lot of research, the couple decided to purchase a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van at the beginning of July. They spent $11,000, using what money they had left from their canceled wedding to create an off-grid, self-reliant vehicle.
For the next couple of months, they focused all their efforts on converting the van.
In early September, they celebrated the completion of their camper van with a vow ceremony
When Natalie chatted with the photographers she initially booked for her wedding in Florida, they decided the couple should take wedding photos in front of their completed van and hold a special vow ceremony, despite having had a legal ceremony via Skype back in July.
"At that point, we put so much effort [into the build] that it became our child," Natalie said. "We built this thing from scratch. It felt so good and rewarding, so we were ready to show it off to the world."
After driving down from Baltimore to Pensacola, Florida, Natalie's florist decorated the van, turning it into a magical setting for a vow ceremony with just a few people in attendance.
"We had this moment where we were like this is it," she said. "It was just perfect. I think it was more than we could've dreamt of for our wedding. It was much more meaningful."
Now they're spending their honeymoon on the open road with their camper van
After their ceremony, the couple spent another week in their camper van, traveling to Lake Champlain, Lake George, and a few towns in Pennsylvania.
They both said the mock honeymoon brought them closer than a traditional honeymoon would have.
"The space is so small that you can't really get away from the other person, and you really learn to live close together," she said. "Half the conversation, while we drive, is about how incredible the sites are that we've seen. We are now able to reflect on everything we were able to do."
Once their honeymoon is over, they will return to Baltimore and return to work, but they plan on keeping the camper they built in lockdown as a means of escape. Plus, Natalie said it reminds them of the freedom they gained during a difficult time.
"It's like making lemonade out of a ton of lemons," she said. "We tried our best to stay positive through it all. I think we both are looking at it now like it was one of the greatest experiences of our lives. It provided us an unplanned, new lease on life."
- Read more:
- A couple lives full-time in a 72-square-foot van with their two dogs so they can pay off debts and travel: 'We've been dreaming of this for many years'
- A couple converted a $20,000 Ram ProMaster van into a tiny house while in lockdown, and they are now road tripping across the country — take a look inside
- A mom and her daughter transform old RVs into modern tiny homes, and more than 200 people are on their waiting list. Here's how they got started.