The Big Day: The Sequel

Who: Man, Bride, Wedding Guests, Bridesmaids, Groom
What: A missed opportunity on a special day.
When: Daytime, morning or early afternoon
Where: the isolated countryside, on winding rural roads
Why: The man has had past experiences with the bride and/or groom.
How: Unforeseeable circumstances force the man to arrive late.

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    A wedding ceremony in a rural part of Central Texas took a turn for the worse this Thursday afternoon when local man Teddy Wimberley arrived late to his own wedding. "I was racing as fast as I could down the countryside. It's supposed to be beautiful out there where we chose our wedding spot, but it all went by so fast," Wimberley explains, "and I with the weather being like this I just kept running into one obstacle after another."
  It was foggy on Thursday, and the rain-slicked roads weren't Teddy's only hindrance. "There was the longest train I'd ever seen, and then I got stuck behind a horse trailer," Teddy says. "Everything that could've gone wrong did."
   Teddy explains the strained familial circumstances that surrounded the wedding. "Our parents didn't really care for us being together, and it was all we could do just to have them attend," Wimberley says, "Put being late on top of that, they probably think I'm an irresponsible husband."
   The mother of the groom describes the tension in the chapel when Teddy finally arrived. "It was quiet already but it seemed quieter when he came through the giant doors. I felt awful, I cringed and tried to hide in my seat. A lot of people didn't seem to know what was going on, but I saw the looks those two were giving each other and I just couldn't stand it."
   Teddy's dramatic entrance, as he soon realized, was part of a terrible misunderstanding. "I saw my fiancee's face and it just dropped, saying "What are you doing here?"except it was completely quiet," Teddy elaborated. "It was the worst feeling I'd ever had in my life."
   Teddy's soon-to-be husband, Roger Jetta, appeared to be marrying another woman right before his eyes. "I didn't even know who she was. She was wearing the most elaborate wedding dress I'd ever seen and he was smiling the biggest smile."
    Teddy's day was about to take yet another turn, it was revealed. "I ran up to the altar. Something came over me, something you only really see in crappy romance movies, and I just started bawling and trying to talk through the tears." Wimberley recalls. "I told him all the things I loved about him and how I couldn't understand how he could do this on the best day of my life. But then he took my hands and he said something to me very quietly."
   "He told me he just hired a bride and even bridesmaids so that our parents could see us be married.
They're pretty close-minded but Roger knows I wanted them to come so he did it for me," said Teddy.
    Wimberley describes how he felt when Roger told him he had staged this wedding to get through to his parents. "It was a last-ditch effort, sure, but Roger isn't one to give up without a fight. We planned everything together but he wouldn't let me see the invitations," Teddy explains. "And he knew I would be late, of course."
 Teddy and Roger Wimberley-Jetta were married on October 31st.