Hurricane season coincides with wedding season, and up and down the Carolinas, brides and grooms who had ceremonies planned this week were frantically trying to reschedule as Hurricane Florence bore down on the coast.
Deborah Sawyer, a veteran wedding planner and photographer in the Outer Banks, moved a beach wedding scheduled for Friday up to Monday. That was for Leah Chesney and Brandon Frick of Carlisle, Pa.
There were supposed to be 85 guests, and most had already arrived for what was meant to be a weeklong celebration.
“So we just pulled everyone together,” Ms. Sawyer said. “Everyone but the hairdresser was able to perform all their duties.”
Ms. Chesney, a 24-year-old nurse, said the result “turned out to be the best thing I ever could have asked for.” Her family and friends raved that it was seamless, and the caterers joined the dance party once they finished their work, she said.
[Residents of the Carolinas are bracing for floods and heavy rains.]
Ms. Sawyer’s next job is scheduled for Sept. 28, and she’s hoping it will go on as planned. But she’s worried about the beach losing all the sand that she normally decorates with colorful arches, wildflowers and rows of white chairs for ceremonies.
She said she always counsels couples considering a late-summer or early fall ceremony to get wedding insurance, and the oceanfront homes used as event venues in the area generally offer renter’s insurance that covers storms.
“It’s affordable, it’s just a good idea,” Ms. Sawyer said by phone from an R.V. parked in a Virginia campground, where she had evacuated with her family.
Carter Loetz and Esther Walsh were relieved that they got insurance. They live in Charlotte, N.C., and had been planning a 130-person wedding in Charleston, S.C., for a year.
It was scheduled for Saturday. They headed down on Monday, wedding dress and tuxedo packed in the car.
“Then came the calls for mandatory evacuation, and it was at that time we realized we weren’t going to be able to have this wedding,” Mr. Loetz said. His future in-laws were in Charleston for all of 90 minutes before they started searching for a way back to New Jersey.
Now they are considering new décor and outfits: The new date is Nov. 30, and the summery garden party they had planned won’t quite work. They have also added a menu item.
“We will definitely be serving hurricanes as the specialty cocktail,” Mr. Loetz said.
Sondi Stachowski and Matt Kenney of Carrboro, N.C., also had to postpone their wedding, which had been scheduled for Saturday, in Durham. Instead, they watched the storm’s progression from their hometown, State College, Pa.
In consolation, their friends — without their knowledge — started a GoFundMe page, which quickly raised thousands of dollars for the couple.
“With all of the lives that are currently being impacted and will be impacted by this devastating hurricane, the effects on us are so small in comparison,” Ms. Stachowski said.
“We’re just thinking of everyone down there, and we’re grateful for the support we got and hoping for the safety of everyone else.”
