Weddings are meant to be joyous celebrations. Of course, even the best-laid plans can run into a snag or two, but when Texas couple Carlos Muniz and Grace Leimann were confronted with the ultimate wedding crasher-COVID-19-it looked as if their dreams for a shared future were about to be shattered. Thanks, however, to the inspired intervention of one caring nurse and his co-workers, tragedy was averted.

Rather than partying with bachelor pals during the week of his scheduled wedding, the groom found himself fighting what looked to be a losing battle with coronavirus in San Antonio's Methodist Hospital ICU. Hooked up to an ECMO machine (an advanced form of life support), Muniz's condition continued to steadily decline.

After learning of his patient's derailed nuptials, nurse Matt Holdridge was immediately struck with an idea shot straight from Cupid's bow. The original ceremony might have been scuttled, but why not organize a wedding for Muniz and Leimann in the hospital instead?

"The ball just kind of got rolling from there," Holdridge said in an interview with CNN. "A lot of people started volunteering for it. Before you knew it, every nurse in the unit knew about it and was trying to figure out ways to make it more special."

For many critically ill patients, having a positive frame of mind can sometimes be as integral a component to recovery as medical treatment. As it turned out, giving Muniz the extra incentive of matrimony proved to be just what the doctor-or in this case, nurse-ordered.

With the wedding back on, Muniz rallied remarkably. "We were able to remove his feeding tube and he was able to eat on his own and drink on his own," Holdridge reported. "Everything about his overall picture got better and better."

The couple tied the socially-distanced knot with a bedside ceremony held on August 11. Leimann wore a traditional white dress accessorized with a matching veil and hospital mask. Muniz, along with best man Holdridge, sported matching tuxedo T-shirts. Rather than the bride walking down the aisle, the groom was wheeled in-bed and all-to the accompaniment of stirring music by a wedding party of elated hospital staffers.

It's been said that "marriage is about two people and weddings are for everyone else." Nowhere could that adage have been more true than on this particular occasion.

Holdridge told CNN that planning and bringing off such an uplifting event in these trying times proved to be a huge morale booster not just for the happy couple, but for the entire hospital staff as well. "We needed that just as much as they did," he admitted.

Guess it just goes to show that even in the age of Coronavirus, sometimes love really does conquer all.

WATCH the beautiful wedding below…

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