ATLANTA (AP) — As girls, Nadia Williams and her sister spent countless hours imagining their weddings. Now 30, Williams helped her younger sibling plan her big day, but when it came on Friday, she couldn’t be at her side as maid of honor. Instead, she put on a sequined dress, pulled her hair back, held a bouquet, and watched the ceremony alone, via Zoom, from a community for older adults.

Williams is among about 70 employees who are sheltering in place alongside more than 500 residents at an upscale assisted-living facility just outside Atlanta. Since the end of March, Park Springs has had employees live on its 61-acre campus instead of commute from home to protect residents from the coronavirus — an unusual approach, even as nursing homes have been among the hardest-hit places by the pandemic.

“Most facilities are so short on space,” said Betsy McCaughey, of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, a nonprofit that provides guidelines for preventing coronavirus at nursing homes. She lauded the idea of keeping staff on site, noting it also protects workers’ families and communities.

The approach has been used elsewhere: In France, staff at a nursing home ended a 47-day quarantine Monday. In Connecticut, the owner of an assisted-living facility that is housing staff on the premises, Tyson Belanger, has called for government funding to help more senior communities do so.

In Georgia, Williams, a health care administrator, said her duty to the residents came first, even though it meant missing the wedding.

“I wish I was there, definitely,” she said, choking up in a video interview with The Associated Press. “I wish I was able to help her get ready.”

Park Springs’ lockdown started after four employees and a resident tested positive for the virus. Most nursing homes have limited visitors, and many screen people for fevers or ask whether they’ve had contact with anyone with the virus. Park Springs’ administrators said they feared those strategies might not be enough.

“We knew we had to do something drastic,” said Donna Moore, chief operating officer of the company that owns Park Springs.

In some ways, Park Springs is more like a resort than a traditional elder-care facility. Residents — some needing no medical care — are spread out in apartment buildings, homes and duplexes on the gated campus near the base of Stone Mountain, a giant rock formation that lures tourists with a trail to the summit and an enormous carving of Confederate leaders.

Residents pay an entrance fee that can top $500,000, with monthly fees ranging from about $2,500 to over $6,000, depending on the type, size and location of their home and whether they live alone or as a couple, according to Park Springs’ website. The median cost of a one-bedroom unit at an assisted-living facility in Georgia last year was just over $3,300 monthly, according to a survey by insurance giant Genworth Financial.

Some facilities might not have the amenities or financial resources to keep staff on campus, said Charlene Harrington, a professor emeritus of nursing at the University of California, San Francisco.

“If it’s a lovely place, maybe the workers wouldn’t mind staying there,” she said.

Park Springs has a gym, tree-lined walking trails to a lake, a steakhouse and an art studio. Employees can use the gym, and administrators have organized karaoke, bingo and Easter dinner for them. They’re also paying those living on site more — a decision made after volunteers had committed to stay, COO Moore said.