Lee threatened to cancel this N.S. couple’s wedding, so they got married at a fish plant | CBC News

It wasn’t exactly the storybook wedding bride Brittany Schnare and husband Drew Mitchell had been dreaming of, but their last-minute decision to move their outdoor festivities to a nearby fish processing plant made for a different kind of fairytale.

“It’s the most memorable wedding that will probably ever happen,” said Schnare on Saturday during her reception.

Days earlier, the couple watched in horror as what later became post-tropical storm Lee inched closer to Nova Scotia, on what appeared to be a direct collision course with their long-planned wedding. 

They were set to get married under a tent in Blandford, N.S., in front of about 200 guests, but this forecast called for desperate measures. 

When Lee gives you lemons, you make lemonade.

Moved to local fish plant

On Wednesday night, less than 72 hours before the wedding, the couple decided to scrap their initial plan and move the wedding reception to the biggest venue they could find on such short notice – a fish processing plant owned by Schnare’s father. 

But there was no concern about a fish smell in the new venue.

“They managed to scrub and scrub and scrub and it’s as clean and as beautiful as you could ever imagine a venue,” said the bride.

But as late as Saturday morning, it still wasn’t clear the show would go on. 

The power was already out. The band scheduled to play the reception cancelled. The road into the coastal community was littered with debris and seaweed.

“I asked her to cancel,” said Andy Schnare, the bride’s father. “But, luckily, the highway sent a plow out and plowed the road off so people could get here. Everything worked amazingly well.” 

Later that day, he watched his daughter walk down the aisle in front of nearly 200 people who made it to Blandford despite the lousy conditions outside. 

“It was a big moment,” he said.

A generator kept the lights and music going all night long, and when the bride’s father left at 1 a.m., the party was still raging. 

“My dad has put so much work into this Plan B wedding that it’s probably better than Plan A,” the bride said.