Wedding Day Fire Burns Down Chicago Couples Home
It was the best of times and the worst of times for a Chicago couple whose home burned down mere hours before they were to be married.
Bride Dayleen Marrero was getting ready at a hotel when groom Andrew Taylor called to tell her they had lost their West Side Chicago apartment Friday afternoon to a building fire along with most everything they owned.
Taylor went door to door in the 20-unit building knocking on doors to warn his neighbors before he returned to the apartment to rescue his tuxedo and the couple’s pit bull. A fire marshal was later able to retrieve their wedding license.
Unfortunately, the wedding rings got left behind; but the couple was able to temporarily borrow rings for the ceremony.
The building housed a variety of artists who lost their most important supplies including the bride, whose silks and costumes burned in the fire. Two groomsmen who lived next door lost their dog and cat along with costumes used during a circus performance.
Chicago couple's home burns down on wedding day http://t.co/tUXj5Akb79 pic.twitter.com/9yedG7jRbt
— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) July 26, 2015
The fire put a damper on their Hollywood-themed wedding, but a flash mob dance was able to temporarily distract the couple from the disaster.
“It was everything I had dreamed of. It just happened to be the same day where we lost everything.”
The events of the day rendered the couple numb, and they soon found themselves making inappropriate fire jokes.
The couple’s wedding fire disaster was even worse than an out of control brawl at a Pennsylvania reception that required officers from 16 different police agencies to shut it down.
That riot began when a wedding guest tried to reprimand a mother for letting her 14-year-old son drink at the reception. The 14-year-old was eventually found to have a blood alcohol level of 0.16, twice that allowed for an adult.
The mother punched the other woman in the face and the brawl began to take shape with three different groups of guests squaring off against each other.
When cops showed up, they found some guests shirtless and bleeding and that’s when they decided to call for backup.
Meanwhile, Dayleen and Andrew are honeymooning on a friend’s couch. Relatives brought them some clothes and basic supplies and a friend started a GoFundMe account.
They’re waiting to be allowed back in to their apartment so they can salvage whatever remains, including hopefully their wedding rings.
“We’re trying to laugh about it because it’s so messed up.”
[Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]
