In light of the continuing cold weather and the hugeslightly smaller drifts of ice and snow that are still packed in everywhere in my neighborhood, I wanted to share this photo from a 2009 winter wedding in Philadelphia. The bride and groom, Stephanie Sudzina and Anthony Campanale, woke up to a wedding day blizzard, but they didn’t let that stop them from saying their vows.
What could be worse, I wonder, than finding out that your nuptials will probably be snowed in? For this couple, it turns out, a lot of things! From a New York Daily News article written by Ronnie Polaneczky:
“We got desperate calls from a number of our vendors, asking if we were still going forward with the wedding,” says Stephanie, 35, a conference planner who grew up in Royersford. “We said, ‘Yes! Yes! People have come from all over the world for us!'”
“He told me, ‘I am going to marry you at 1 p.m. today,'” recalls Stephanie. “He said, ‘Even if there’s no one there but us. I can’t wait to see you walk down the aisle. That’s what this is all about. We’re getting married.'”
Isn’t that just fantastic? And that’s just what happened – thanks in part to the kindness of Ritz-Carlton concierge James Portner and other Ritz-Carlton staffers who went above and beyond the call of duty to put their wedding back together.
Now, granted, in the event that your wedding gets snowed in or rained out or a rock slide demolishes your reception venue and half your wedding vendors come down with food poisoning, it’s unlikely that you’re going to have the lovely people at the Ritz-Carlton at your disposal.
But no matter what unexpected tragedy befalls your wedding, there will almost always be some way to make things right. No canceling the wedding. No sending everyone home. You may not end up with exactly the wedding you were picturing in your head, but you’ll have one hell of a memory to compensate!
A lot of brides-to-be – and probably some grooms-to-be, too – get overwhelmed by wedding planning stress because they can’t stop thinking about all the ‘what ifs’. I’m guessing Stephanie Sudzina and Anthony Campanale were not that kind of bride and groom. My take is this: In the end, the more unpredictable ‘what ifs’ are going to happen no matter what you do, so quit your worrying.
If you’re currently planning a wedding, what is the ‘what if’ that scares you the most? And if you’re already married, did any of your ‘what ifs’ actually come to pass?
The people at the Ritz-Carlton sound lovely.
Our wedding also had an unexpected event. It was a bit more easily overcome than a blizzard, but it was still something that would have sent some couples ’round the bend.
We got in a car accident on the way to the ceremony.
My soon-to-be-husband, my best friend/maid of honour and I were in the cab heading up 5th, towards Central Park. Next thing you know…”CRUNCH”. It was a fender bender, but a big enough one that the two drivers started analyzing and talking over the situation, as the minutes (and the meter) ticked away.
Finally, we said, “heck with it”, gave the guy his money, got out and started walking.
We walked from 60th up to 72nd, in our wedding finery.
In retrospect, I’m glad we had that fender-bender. It was a beautiful October day, and we had given ourselves plenty of time, so we weren’t running late, and it was an absolute hoot to walk up Central Park West in my wedding gown, with drivers yelling congratulations out of their car windows and pedestrians smiling and wishing us well. It was just one of those great New York moments that sticks in your head forever, and I wouldn’t have had that great memory if everything HAD gone according to plan.
Wow! Now if you’re going to have a big wedding day oops, make it into one that sees you walking through NYC on a gorgeous day in your wedding gown! That’s fantastic.
It was a blast. If I’d only known, I would have had the cab drop us off even 10 blocks earlier. 🙂
There’s been a few weddings go ahead despite flood and cyclone conditions in Australia lately. In one case, they weren’t sure if the bride was going to be able to make it through the flood to the groom! And last year a friend had the rear windscreen of her bridal car fall in on her due to hail! She was an hour late for the ceremony, due to having to detour around floods, but it was a beautiful wedding and they were so happy!