A Mission bride won’t soon forget her wedding day, as the fierce windstorm of Saturday, Aug. 29 changed her plans enormously.
Bride Courteney Rushworth was to be married at the Burnaby Mountain campus of Simon Fraser University (SFU). She was expecting 120 guests to help her and new husband Michael celebrate.
The windstorm caused the power to go out, as was the case in much of the Lower Mainland. This happened around 12:30 p.m. The ceremony was scheduled for 3 p.m., followed by cocktails at 4 and dinner at 6.
Rushworth wasn’t panicking, but she was hoping that the plans she had made could be carried out — and that there would be music.
The SFU dining services catering team did everything they could to make the wedding and reception happen as the bride and groom had planned.
Courteney and Michael were able to have their first dance to Luke Bryan’s To the Moon and Back.
At first the SFU kitchen staff were able to work with available light. They made salads and did prep work while waiting for the lights to get back on. After an hour went by, they started using a pair of barbecues for cooking food and heating sauces. Other staff secured lanterns and candles for lighting.
They got a generator for the music, and the university’s facilities services department also brought a generator and sewage truck to pump the toilets so they didn’t back up.
Courteney said the power outage made the wedding even more memorable. “We just had a ton of candles lit, so it was actually kind of cool. I would actually prefer it without lights. If I was to tell anybody, I would say that it was actually kind of fun,” she said.
The wedding will not soon be forgotten.