Hurricane Delta speeds up couple’s nuptials
ABBEVILLE, LA. » Hurricane Delta sped up one Louisiana couple’s wedding by a few days, but judging by the smiles on the bride and groom, it certainly didn’t dampen the affair. Ian and Taylor Gaspard from Abbeville were supposed to get married Saturday, Oct. 10, with 300 people to wish them well inside the Saint Mary Magdalen Church, a scenic brick building in the town’s center surrounded by green lawn and oak trees.
But Hurricane Delta had other plans.
After watching the storm slowly make its way toward Louisiana — and after a bit of what Taylor described as bridal hysterics — the couple swiftly changed gears and held thewedding at the
church Thursday instead, with friends and family in attendance. Skies were grey, but the rain held offwhile the weddingpartygathered. The streets outside were largely deserted as residents finished up last-minute storm preparations or evacuated.
“It wasn’t supposed to be coming to us, and then all of
a sudden it was supposed to be coming, like, right to us,” Taylor said.
“So, of course, I got hysterical, and my little supermanhere came in and saved the day,” she said, gesturing to her beaming husband. In her hands she held a beautiful bouquet of flowers.
She said her husband and her older sister improvised to speed up the ceremony at the church, which is just a few miles inland.
“Within 16 hours they threw an entire wedding together, and it’s beautiful. I can’t askfor better,” she said. “At theendof theday, we just wanted to get married, and itwas important that we did it in the church because that was important toourparents and our faith.”
Speaking after the church service, her mother Linda Choate said it was beautiful.
“She just wanted to be absolutely perfect for her groom. It was very important for her that she did get married in the church and when that almost didn’t happen she was so distraught,” she said. “Theyasked ‘Father, can we please do this before youhave toevacuate?’ andhe said, ‘Today!’”