Wanda English Burnett, Editor

About the only activity that wasn’t cancelled in Ripley County and most areas of the tri-state over the weekend, was the exchange of nuptials of Eileen Crawford and Blew DeWire.

The couple was not available for comment the day after their wedding, but the groom’s mother, Sherry DeWire, told the Osgood Journal the weather definitely caused a swirl of emotions as they crossed each bridge as they came to it.

How do you postpone a wedding? You don’t, the officiating pastor told the couple. David Shivers of the Hopewell Baptist Church, where the wedding took place in the pristine countryside near Holton, was willing to perform the ceremony if it meant getting the couple cross country “on a tractor,” laughed Sherry.

Well, that didn’t happen, but a host of people pulled together to make the couple’s dream a reality. “Everyone was great,” Sherry noted, adding, “it just warms my heart.”

With the exception of postponing their honeymoon trip to Myrtle Beach and having a few elderly family members unable to attend - the wedding went off without a hitch.

“People really showed their love,” Sherry shared. She told how the bridal party had appointments at the Odyssey Salon in Versailles for the occasion. “Sarah (Comer, owner of the business) called in the morning on Saturday and said she had made it to her salon, but felt the roads were too bad for the ladies to come in,” Sherry noted. Besides, how would their hair hold up in the snow and wind? “I told her I could fix my own hair and we’d all help each other and manage,” Sherry said, even though her heart was sinking. “Oh, no, that’s not what I meant,” Sarah told her. The rest was history. Sarah brought all the supplies and products needed to set up an impromptu salon at the church and fixed hair on the spot. “She just made everybody’s day. She (Sarah) has just a good heart!” Sherry exclaimed.

Even at the wedding, plans for the reception were not concrete. Sherry explained that they had planned to see just how many people could even get to the wedding and with the caterer on stand-by, they weren’t sure what would happen. Sherry couldn’t remember the caterer’s name, but said the lady had trials of her own that week, losing her mother. “She told us she would take some food to the reception hall in Millhousen and just fix food for those who would show up to take down the already decorated hall and clean up. “It wasn’t going to really be a reception at that point,” Sherry said.

But then, “one more miracle happened,” as people started showing up at the wedding. At least 200 people enjoyed a first class reception that was put together “quickly”. We called the caterer and said, “it’s on!”

Lori Samples of Samples Photography said it was her first experience with weather that challenging when on assignment. She was willing to brave the blizzard for her friends. Her mom, Roseanne Mills, made several calls to police and highway departments and with some suggestions for route travel, no one had any problems navigating the treacherous roads.

At the end of the day, the newlyweds agreed it was a wedding like no other, but, according to friends, “definitely worth it!”

PHOTO COMPLIMENTS OF SAMPLES PHOTOGRAPHY Mother Nature provided a perfect backdrop for the newlyweds, Mr. and Mrs. Blew DeWire last Saturday as they posed, quickly, outside for this shot. They were married at the Hopewell Baptist Church and over 200 people came to help them celebrate the occasion that was marked by a reception at Millhousen.