#Upstate NY wedding with 175 guests can proceed despite COVID-19, judge rules

An upstate wedding with a 175-guest list can go forward this weekend, despite a coronavirus mandate that limits nuptial gatherings to just 50 people, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Pamella Giglia and Joe Durolek filed suit last month, alongside since-married couple Jenna DiMartile and Justin Crawford, claiming that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order limiting social gatherings to 50 people or less has been unfairly applied while protests, graduations and restaurants have all seen much larger groups.

They also claimed the order violated their First and 14th Amendment rights in not allowing them to carry out a religious wedding according to their conscience and beliefs.

DiMartile and Crawford’s wedding was allowed to proceed on Aug. 7 after the judge ruled in their favor just minutes before DiMartile walked down the aisle at The Sterling at Arrowhead Golf Club in Akron with around 115 guests looking on.

But following Federal Judge Glenn Suddaby’s decision, the state filed an appeal and then asked Suddaby to hold off the Aug. 22 Giglia-Durolek wedding — which is also set to take place at the Arrowhead Golf Club — until the appellate court ruled.

Suddaby denied the motion for a stay, saying that “Although the public certainly does have an interest in preventing the spread of COVID-19, the public also has an interest in having constitutional rights protected and not unduly infringed by unchecked government action.”

Suddaby also noted that the guests at both weddings were and are required to wear masks and social distance when they aren’t seated at their own table — which the Arrowhead and “24 of the core attendees at the Giglia-Durolek wedding have sworn that they will comply with,” the decision read.

But, the state argued that weddings are riskier than regular restaurant dining for a myriad of reasons including that guests stay longer, they have more interaction with more people, the guests come and go roughly at the same time and wedding guests are less likely to comply with mask-wearing and social distancing.

Indeed, Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said in a declaration in the case that the upcoming wedding could be a “super-spreader” of the coronavirus.

Mayor Bill de Blasio Wednesday said that an uptick in coronavirus cases in Borough Park Brooklyn was most likely linked to a recent large-scale wedding.

Despite the promise by Giglia and Durolek, their officiant, 21 of their guests and the venue to comply with indoor dining restrictions at restaurants, “the State defendants have continued to assume non-compliance based on the nature of the event as a wedding, without a rational basis,” Suddaby wrote in the decision.

“We are not looking for New York State to rewrite the rules, just apply them fairly,” the couples’ lawyer Chad Davenport told The Post.

Cuomo spokeswoman Caitlin Girouard emphasized that the decision only applies to these two particular weddings while other weddings must still follow state guidelines.

“We are appealing the August 7th decision as it risks public health and endangers the progress New York has made in maintaining one of the lowest infection rates in the country while cases are surging across the country,” Girouard said.

“In the meantime, we will continue enforcing state guidance limiting large, non-essential gatherings to 50 people.”

Additional reporting by Bernadette Hogan