My husband and I may not have had the perfect wedding, but we are glad to have had one at all.

Our original wedding date was 9/24/2005, in Houston, Texas.  Three days before the ceremony was to take place, my parents came into my bedroom and woke me up.  Hurricane Rita was on a collision course with Houston, and wasn't showing signs of slowing down.  We made the call then and there to cancel the wedding and evacuate.

My parents, my fiance's parents and I had to call each of our over 200 guests and personally tell them not to attend.  Luckily, most of them were from out of town and they were able to get refunds on their flights due to the natural disaster.

My in-laws flew in from Washington DC that night, and the next morning (Thursday), my husband's cousin flew in on the LAST flight into Houston.  My father-in-law drove to pick him up - and it took him 8 hours to make the 20 mile drive home.  The evacuation traffic had jammed every route around the city.

Our minister happened to have a chapel in her home, so we decided to get married on the next evening, before evacuating to Dallas.  She had a lovely chapel with vaulted ceilings and 17th-century stained glass windows.  It was beautiful.  Our florist, since we had paid for a full wedding's worth of flowers, dropped them all off at our house, and we hand-made bouquets for myself and my sister-in-law. 

My dress was at the dry cleaners, and they evacuated and shut their doors - so I put on my rehearsal dinner dress, a nice strapless black short dress.  My husband wore a blue blazer and khakis, and we all trekked over to the minister's house.

It was emotional.  My dad walked me down the short aisle to our cousin, a world-renowned pianist, playing the electric piano.  We cried the entire ceremony, and my veil fell off when he kissed me.

There were men standing outside the house waiting to board up the stained-glass windows while we were getting married.

Afterwards, we returned to my parents' house for a mini-impromptu reception, then began evacuating.  My dad gave siphoned 2 gas cans' worth of fuel from each of his vehicles, one for each evacuation car, and sent us on our way. 

My in-laws, cousin, and brother-and-sister-in law drove with my new husband and I in the unbelievable traffic for over 10 hours that night - not exactly the wedding night I had pictured!  There were times on and off road, times that the road ended in front of us, and times where people were trying to steal our gas cans.  We stopped for food at a convenience store, and found people looting the place.  We were lucky to have my brother in law, an FBI agent, to make us feel more secure.

The dawn of our wedding night finally broke, and we were 20 miles outside of Dallas.  Just then, we came over a ridge and saw a sudden burst of flames and smoke - a bus had exploded just ahead, which ended up being full of elderly evacuees.  It was very tragic to witness that event.  We turned off the road, and headed west towards D/FW airport.  We had rebooked our honeymoon to leave on Friday, and were close to missing our flight.

We made the flight in the nick of time, flew to Puerto Vallarta, and breathed a sigh of relief.  However, while we were there, we had to re-plan the entire wedding - for two weeks later.  A very dear friend of the family also died while we were gone, and we had to miss his funeral. 

Once back at home, we were able to rebook the ceremony and reception for 2 weeks later.  We ended up not being out any money, except for flowers! 

On night before our "vow renewal" ceremony and reception - where I FINALLY got to wear my dress - my brother was heading home from college to join us, and was involved in a head-on collision.  That night, leaving the rehearsal dinner, my parents and the same brother were in a major car accident that totalled their Infiniti. 

In the end, we were able to have a FANTASTIC ceremony and reception - and everyone who really wanted to be at our wedding was able to attend.  Despite all of these challenges, we are happy as can be - I don't see them as an omen at all!  I think that our story is proof that love can persevere through LITERALLY anything.  The best memento from all of this is my husband's wedding band.  I had had the date - 9/24/05 - engraved on the inside.  For our first anniversary, we had the inscription "-2" (for the date being 2 days earlier than we thought) added to the band.  It serves as a neat reminder every year when we look back at what a chaotic, crazy time that was.