Let Me Just Tell You About The Wedding I Went To This Weekend

Trisha Caldwell and Tyler Cravener had just been introduced for the first time as husband and wife.  After completing the receiving line and shooting post-ceremony photos at Schmucker's Grove in East Derry, PA, the two were to join their nearly two hundred guests at the Fairfield Volunteer Fire Company hall for a raucous reception.

As I was leaving the ceremony with my fiance and future family-in-law, the fire siren was blaring from across the street at the East Derry Volunteer Fire Company.  Seemed like awfully awkward timing, but we all were glad that the call had not happened during the ceremony.

"Maybe it's like a twenty-one gun salute," I quipped to my fiancee.

She knew that could not be the case.  "It's a volunteer fire company, Ryan.  They're calling the volunteers in to fight a fire."

Not thinking much more of it, we all piled into the car and started making the trek two towns over for the reception.  As we were moving out, trucks driven by the fire company's volunteers sped toward the firehouse.

Despite moving further away from town, the fire vehicles seemed to be following us.  We were headed through historic Ligonier to Fairfield.  So were the fire trucks, including a tanker truck to supply water.  Strange, we thought, but with few hydrants in that part of the Laurel Highlands, the tanker would be needed to battle the blaze.

Heading up toward the Fire Hall, we drove to the base of a hill that we would go up to get to the reception.  At that base, though, were police and fire officials.  They were turning cars back around from where we came.  As we got to the officers, we asked what was going on.  All they could tell us was that we could not go up the hill - only head back a few miles to a local golf course, Champion Lakes, that we passed on the way there.  So, we did just that.

Arriving at the course, the parking lot is jammed with confused and concerned wedding guests.  As soon as we get out of the car, we find out what had happened.  While preparing the Hall for the reception during the ceremony, the Hall caught on fire.  Perhaps it was a propane leak interacting with open flame.  The cause didn't much matter, though.  Fire had consumed the building and everything had been ruined - the wedding reception and the four decades of history of the building that the community constructed themselves. 

The grandfather of the bride had put the last brick in that building, along with his brothers.  Six or eight community families mortgaged their homes to build the fire company.  What a horrible situation.  Fortunately, no one was hurt in the blaze.

The wedding guests kind of huddled together in small groups, wondering what to do now.  The golf course eventually invited us to come into the clubhouse to have a beer or ten and figure out what to do next.  Friends of the couple had gotten phone books to start calling places to have the reception on exactly zero notice.  What could be available for two hundred people on a fall Saturday?  Probably not much of anything.  Despair had set in.

Trisha's grandfather Dean Caldwell - member of the fire company - placed a phone call into fellow firefighter Bill Hutchinson, who happened to be the assistant manager of Champion Lakes.  Bill offered to have Champion Lakes host the entire reception in their smaller, but unbooked banquet hall.  The room was designed to hold maybe a hundred people, but we would make do.  After all, the room had a dance floor.  The DJ set up his equipment, started playing music, and people slowly trickled in to take their seats.

The Champion Lakes staff put out munchies - potato chips, pretzels - and started laying out sodas and bottles of liquor for drinks.  They set up an ad-hoc head table on the dance floor for the wedding party's arrival.

The bride and groom's friends made trips up to the Fire Hall, where the fire was now extinguished.  They gathered what had not been burnt by the fire and brought it back to Champion Lakes to set up the tables.  Flowers were set, centerpieces were laid out on the guest tables.  All of a sudden, a wedding reception was taking shape.

Someone phoned in an order for a ton of pizzas.  That would be our dinner.  Another person went and got a small cake for Trisha and Tyler to cut.  The fire had not consumed miniature pumpkin pies made to fit the fall theme of the intended reception.  With food, drink, and music going, the crowd had moved past the tragedy and embraced the new plans.  The reception was on like nothing had ever happened.

The DJ came on the mic and told everyone that the wedding party was almost to the course.  They knew what had happened and were understandably horrified.  But, Trisha's instruction was that she didn't want to see anyone upset by the fire.  The order had already been filled.  The party was hopping.

The wedding party arrived and were introduced to great fanfare.  They were ready to join in the party that had started without them, but also because of them.

Then the news came.  The Pittsburgh news station interviewed Trisha & Tyler, took some footage of the reception, and made their way home to edit the tape.

By then, the party was in full effect.  The DJ played "Don't Stop Believing," the stock Journey song that kind of took on a slightly different meaning given what had happened.  Couples old and young were dancing, drinking, and having a great time.

What began as a beautiful day was marred by tragedy.  But, it was restored by devoted friends and family and an understanding newlywed couple.  The end result was a great reception and a beautiful celebration.

I'm putting together a video of the footage I shot from the ceremony on my cell phone camera, but here's a report from ABC's WTAE.  (I interviewed the reporter for my video.)