Cheryl, never one to be late, planned on getting to
the church two hours before the ceremony -- plenty of
time to put on her dress and makeup. Just about
that time I (Frank) got a call from our photographer
telling me that Peachtree Road (where the church is
located) was blocked off and there was no way to get
to the church! He did not know why.
Neither Cheryl or I had any knowledge that Atlanta's
St. Patrick's Day parade was scheduled to happen the
day of our wedding, let alone that roads would be
blocked off. Apparently, neither did the wedding
director at our church! We had no warning.
I
immediately called Cheryl to find she was less than
two miles away, just about to hit all of the traffic.
Since Cheryl is unfamiliar with the area around the
church, I gave her some alternate directions, hoping
to get her in through a back way, but that didn't
work. The police kept directing her around and
around, everywhere except to the church!
After over 90 minutes (yes, one and one half hours) of
being stuck in traffic and routed to everywhere except
where she needed to be, she got out and talked to an
Atlanta police officer, begging to be let through the
road-block, or for an escort to the church because she
was about to miss her own wedding. Her veil was
on; her dress was visible in the back seat...yet he
would not do a thing! (But he did say
"congratulations on getting married" to her!) I
was on the cell phone with her the whole time, and I
couldn't believe my ears. He offered no help at
all. No suggested alternate route. She was less
than a mile from the church. (Also running into
issues was her brother, who was to "give her away".
He, however, got lucky when he spoke to a police
officer. He said he was about to miss his own
wedding, and that officer let him right through the
road block so he could get to the church.)
Finally, with a lot of luck and some assistance from a
friend at the church who had a detailed map of the
area, she arrived 10 minutes before the ceremony was
supposed to start. It was just about then
when the street completely opened up in front of, and
north of the church. Thankfully, the church
allowed us to postpone the start for 30 minutes, which
also gave guests more time to arrive, as well as the
Matron of Honor who was trying to follow Cheryl and
got separated just before Cheryl found the way to the
church. Poor Cheryl. She thought she would
have plenty of time to get ready, relax, and enjoy the
day -- maybe even get some pictures done before the
ceremony...but nope. It was as frantic as could
be...and she just wanted the ceremony to be over with
so we could get to the party! You can see in the
video how fast she walked up the aisle, and when I was
bringing her back down, slowly for photo-ops, she
wanted to walk faster.
On
top of the stress from the parade issue, we were both
sad because we didn't think Cheryl's mom was going to
make it to the wedding. She had gotten very sick
a few days earlier. We hoped that staying home
and missing the rehearsal would allow her to recover
and get up enough energy to come to the wedding, but
we didn't expect her to make it. To our surprise
(happily!) a friend of hers drove her to the wedding
ceremony. She had to be seated before the
ceremony due to her low energy level, and could only
stand for a couple of pictures, but she got to see her
daughter get married, and Cheryl got to have her mom
at her wedding. Then, after the ceremony, the
friend took her all the way back home in Alpharetta
and came all the way back to the reception! What
a wonderful friend she has...and what a day for
Cheryl! Once the ceremony finally started,
everything went great....until the end of the
honeymoon, that is...The other "horror" story....
