Couple had a wedding planned — and ended up getting married by a nurse: ‘It was a last-ditch effort’
The bride was all dressed in white — hospital gauze, that is.
When Nora Regis’ water suddenly broke at 33-weeks pregnant last month, she and then-fiancé Michael Odland scrapped their lavish May 10 wedding plans for a maternity ward holy matrimony, instead.
“You know what they say, you make plans and God laughs,” Odland, 38, from Sleepy Hollow, New York, told People of becoming a hubby and daddy to a little boy on the same day in late April.
“We had a shower planned for him, I had a grad school final but he decided to come early,” added Regis, 38, a project manager pursuing her master’s degree. “So all those things have been put on hold.”
Upon her water breaking, the partners-turned-parents — who’ve known each other since childhood, but only became an item in 2022 — rushed to Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, NY for an emergency C-section.
“Our first thoughts were just trying to assess the risk and making the choice to do a C-section,” said Odland. “That kind of allowed us to ask, ‘If this is being scheduled, do you have a chaplain and can you marry us here?.’”
Enter nurse Valerie Goodwin.
“It was the most unusual request I think I’ve ever had in the 17 years I’ve been a nurse,” said Goodwin, 42.
The couple’s kooky request notwithstanding, the hospital pro and her fellow labor & delivery staffers jumped to make the makeshift wedding a hit.
After crowning Regis’ head with a veil made of hospital gauze and piecing together a floral bouquet of blossoms picked from a display, the scrappy nurses scrambled to find an officiant — at 11:00 pm on a weeknight.
“We got bumped back by six or eight hours because there were others who needed to go first, so in that time the maternity nursing staff was working in the background,” said Odland. “They were calling everyone asking ‘Can anyone marry them?’”
Then, like manna from Heaven, Michael “Rev” Revenson, an EMS paramedic and a non-denominational officiant, appeared.
“It was a last-ditch effort,” said Revenson. “My shift started at 11 p.m., so I said I can be right over.”
“They already had their vows and their marriage license so we were all set,” continued the clergyman — who Regis and Odland have nicknamed their “Emergency Marriage Technician.”
“The hospital and staff really went above and beyond for this,” added Revenson.
Odland agrees.
“The nurses formed an aisle around the front of the maternity ward desk that gave us a real wedding experience,” said the proud papa. “For me, it was just really moving.”
“It was really cool and sweet,” chimed Regis. “They were all so excited and it was really heartwarming.”
Her mom, Janet Brandstrader, sped to the hospital and served as wedding photographer just three hours before her grandson was born.
“So right after the wedding, we put on our scrubs,” said Odland. “We’re walking to the delivery room and it was like, that really did happen in the nick of time.”
His and Regis’ neonatal nuptials nearly mirror those of Missouri couple Sara and Brandon Perry, who exchanged vows “in between contractions” just before welcoming their baby on Feb. 13.
Brianna Lucca-Cerezo and her honey, Luis, too, said “I Do” while she was in active labor in late February.
“I never heard of anyone getting married in a hospital before we did,” Lucca-Cerezo, a Florida transplant originally from New York, told Fox35. The nurse staff of AdventHealth Orlando arranged an ornate ceremony for the NYC sweeties just hours before they welcomed son Landon on Feb. 25.
Lucca-Cerezo is eternally grateful to the healthcare workers.
“They really made us feel like a part of the family,” she gushed.
