Couple Says 'I Do' as Wedding Resort Went Up in Flames
Every bride prays it won’t rain on her wedding day, but most never think to worry about a five-alarm fire.
An hour before Nancy Rogers was supposed to say “I do” to her fiance Michael, the resort where the ceremony was set to take place went up in flames.
The bride, 32, learned that the main lodge at the historic White Point Beach Resort in Liverpool, Novia Scotia, was on fire just as she was getting into her wedding dress.
“Michael’s mom knocked on the door. She had an awful look on her face,” the bride told Canada’s National Post, noting that at the time, she could only see smoke coming from the main lodge. “We were thinking that at any minute they’d have things under control. It wasn’t until we had another knock on the door and the police were there to evacuate us that we went ‘uh-oh.’”
With clouds of smoke in the distance, the couple hoped for the best and decided to go ahead with the ceremony.
“Our first question to staff was, ‘Is every guest and staff member safe?’ And once we knew they were, we tried to make the most of a tragic event on our wedding day,” the groom said in a post on the resort’s Facebook page.
The couple, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, also wrote on Facebook that the staff was amazing throughout the crisis. They moved the wedding and their guests to an alternate building on the other side of the property for the ceremony and attemped to preserve their special day.
Instead of posing for pictures on the picturesque beach of the south coast as planned, the couple smiled for photos with the burning hotel and fire trucks in the background.
“I am a details person, and all of it was lost,” Nancy said in the interview with the National Post. “But the staff … they made our wedding happen.”
The main lodge at the resort caught fire around 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, according to local reports, and firefighters spent nearly six hours fighting the flames. Though the 83-year-old building was destroyed, there were no reported injuries.
Community members, tourists and other couples who tied the knot at the popular location have taken to the resort’s Facebook page to share photos and memories.
“Our hearts go out to the community, and our family of faithful employees faced with this devastating loss. We are most thankful for the firefighters — for containing the fire to the Main Lodge, and that no one was hurt. Even our cherished bunnies are safe and sound,” the resort said on its website. The owner of the White Point has vowed to rebuild.
