(LEX 18) — Whitney Goldsberry and Jeoffrey Teage had planned their destination wedding in Puerto Vallarta for a year and a half. Then everything changed when the Jalisco New Generation Cartel set the city on fire.
This comes after the death of their leader, "El Mencho," at the hands of the Mexican military.
The couple was staying in Puerto Vallarta when the violence broke out just hours before they were supposed to walk down the aisle.
"Out of all the anxieties a bride has for her wedding, it never crossed my mind to worry about the cartel bombing our wedding. That was not a part of it," Goldsberry said.
Vehicles were set ablaze, gas stations were burned, and the smell of smoke filled the air around their hotel.
"It smelled like burning rubber for sure. They were asking people to evacuate their cars and buses. They were setting them on fire. They were burning gas stations," Travis Young, a friend of the couple, said.
With the city in turmoil, the couple made the difficult decision to reschedule their wedding.
"We don't want people trying to enjoy our love and this beautiful ceremony when they're feeling scared," Goldsberry said.
But the couple refused to give up entirely. With help from Teage's band, the Blind Corn Liquor Pickers, and other friends, the wedding was rescheduled for the following day.
"It's very unfortunate because we seriously do empathize with like the town, like. I mean, this city is burning around us and we're like, can we actually make our wedding happen," Teage said.
The band's tight-knit spirit helped make it possible.
"We always have this joke as a band. It's like, blind corn unite, everybody get back together, get away from what you're doing," Teage said.
The couple also had to improvise in other ways. They found their wedding photographer at a resort bar.
"We happened to find him by taking shots with him and, and hired him for the wedding," Goldsberry said.
Goldsberry even clipped flowers from trees to make her bouquet.
The wedding did not go according to plan — but for those who were there, it became something far more meaningful. Travis Young, a friend of the couple and member of the Blind Corn Liquor Pickers, reflected on what the night meant.
"The world feels chaotic right now. And we felt that very directly this weekend. And the only answer that we could come up with, is the only answer that I think anybody could ever come up with at these times, and that's to combat it with love," Young said. "And that's what we had... a couple at the core of that who love each other very deeply and are inspiring to all of us,"
For Teage, the experience was something he will never forget.
"We made what was a disaster, the most beautiful thing I've ever been involved with," Teage said.
