My Hurricane Wedding

I thought I'd share our wedding story.  I sent parts of this into a local news station as well, so if you already know bits, forgive me. 

Eight months ago, on my 30th birthday, my wonderful boyfriend proposed to me.  Our relationship has always been a bit different.  We met in Hong Kong while we were both traveling around the world.  I live in New York City, he lives in London.  Over the past two years we've been kept apart by volcanic ash, massive snow storms, a broken plane door and of course, last weeks earthquake.

On Thursday his family flew in, about 11 people and my family prepared to come up from Maryland.  On Friday for lunch, we met my parents and his at our wedding venue so everyone could meet and see where the big event was going to happen.  This was when we were informed that the event space would be closing and that our wedding, only 18 hours away, was cancelled.  This is the worse thing I have ever heard in my life.  Being an international couple we knew that Saturday was the only day that everyone would be together, probably forever.

My mom sprang into action.  She called the hotel they were staying at, the Newark Hilton, and they said they could do it.  My fiancee went over to the new venue with my parents and began to plan plan plan.  They redid the whole wedding in 2 hours.  We had all of the favors and they re-purposed them for the new space.  One of the hotel employees even found a bakery for a last minute cake and went to pick it up herself.  I called all of our vendors and they all were amazing and had no problems relocating to the new space.

Then we found out that the officiant wouldn't be able to come.  Just a hour before we said our vows one of my relatives became ordained online, which is totally legal in NJ.  Everyone who was there pitched in to make it the best day possible for Edward and myself. 

Despite everything, I walked down the aisle yesterday.  It might not have been the wedding of my dreams, the wedding I've spent the last eight months planning, but I married the man of my dreams.

I am so glad it all worked out in the end and glad to see so many people give a helping hand!

Awwwww....that is lovely, and a great foundation for your marriage.    

I hope the rest of your life together is filled with the same love and cooperation that made your wedding a success! 

Goodness! I'm so glad it all worked out for you in the end. And what a wonderful family you have!

My grandmother has an incredible story of her wedding that she almost missed due to a blizzard. It was obviously stressful for her then, but she really enjoys talking about it now, especially as they're still happily married 60 years on. I hope it will be exactly the same for you. Congratulations! 

Wow, how wonderful that people were able to still make it happen for you! Congratulations.

Congrats!

I’m sorry it didn’t work out exactly as you planned, but at least you got to have a wedding. They do say that if it rains on your wedding day, it’s good luck. Well, you were married during a hurricane, so I think your marriage will probably be golden!  

I still think that I'm in a bit of shock.  DH picked out the cake and everything so that I could do some bridal pampering.  My married friends all said that they couldn't see their husbands doing that at all.  I am so loved and I love him so much.  I know that it will be us vs. bad weather for the rest of our lives, and that we will always come out on top. 

Oh your wedding sounds wonderful! To be married in midst of a hurricane, to be lucky enough to have a husband and family that were able to pull together in the face of adversity and make it all happen and even one becoming an ordained minister an hour before to marry you, that is fantastic! You will have the best stories for your grandchildren about your wedding day!
Congratulations and best wishes to you both! 

international relationships are a hard thing to overcome, and sometimes, things get even harder...... but i'm glad everything worked out, and congrats!

Congrats! I'm glad it ended up happening. You should write a wedding grad post for A Practical Wedding! Definitely a good story.

Just make sure it's going to be legal since your marriage license was issued in Jersey City and the ceremony ended up being in Newark.

Congrats on your wedding.  Even with all the hiccups, you both triumphed.  In a way, it sounds romantic they way everyone jumped into action so that you may have your way.

Best wishes for a lovely long future together!   

I'm glad to hear it worked out in the end, congratulations and best wishes to you both!

Just imagine, in the future, you'll be able to tell everyone you got married during a hurricane!

Your story will make the day even more special.  My sister got married in the midst of a small hurricane in South Carolina.  It was supposed to be a beach wedding at the Isle of Palms, but the tropical storm that was swarming decided otherwise. We hurriedly changed the venue to their hotel, which was hosting the reception anyway.  We ran around in lashing rain making things happen, and they were married in front of this huge plate-glass window with palm trees slashing madly behind them.  It was crazy and kind of funny all at the same time and had this feel of the marriage seeing the tests of time through it all.   Before the storm became full-force, I was silly enough to run out to the beach where they would have married and brought them some seashells back from their wedding site.  Boy, was I absolutely drenched!

It was one of the most memorable weddings I've gone to, and we all had a ball.  That night we all evacuated the island and got out of dodge, but I have such fun memories from that day.  We can't talk about it without smiling now at the memory.

The irony was that while they were on their honeymoon, the same hurricane, downgraded to a tropical storm, swept over Virginia, where they live, and completely flooded the street.  When they came home, their car had turned into a swimming pool.  So their other legacy of the wedding storm was they got a new car from the insurance man.

I can't compete with a hurricane but when I was married in 2004 my mom, sister and brother-in-law all got norovirus.  My mom somehow managed to walk me down the aisle before she had to run outside to throw up.  Same thing with my sister-did her reading, when outside to vomit, came back inside.  Brother-in-law was doing a video, until the camera suddenly is moved around.....to go outside to vomit. 

They all missed the reception but managed to stick around till the end of our very short ceremony.  At the time, I was sort of in a shocked state.  Now-we all laugh about it. We've had plenty of other memories to share!

Wow! What a story! I am so glad it all worked out for you in the end! We dodged a hurricane for our wedding in 1999, not as dramatic as your story, but it did scare the crap out of me!

I flew out of JFK on Wednesday night...little did I know I would have been stuck there had I not booked for that day!

Mazel Tov anyway!!!!!!