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Couple Finds Silver Lining After Torrential Flooding Ruins Wedding

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A little rain on your wedding day is considered good luck, but whoever said that wasn't in Ellicott City on Sunday night.

Kristen Rigney and Craig Cymbor were getting ready to tie the knot at the Main Street Ballroom when Ellicott City was slammed with nearly eight inches of rain.

"We were about to kick off the ceremony just after 4 o'clock. There was a little creek behind the venue and it had pretty much broken through and come over the barriers, and the water was pouring up against the front doors of the venue. Pretty quickly, we had to scramble to get everybody -- it was the bottom floor of the venue and we got everybody onto the top floor," groomsman Mitch Foreman said.

Rigney -- with a smile on her face -- Cymbor and their guests were evacuated.

"We actually had water pouring down the staircase as we were walking up. We had people carrying kids, we had someone on crutches, so we had to get everyone up there. Once we got up and cooled off a minute we were like, 'We've got a wedding to do, let's get them married.,'" Foreman said.

The wedding party and guests went to La Palapa Grill & Cantina, where they were quickly married before they were evacuated again.

"We left La Palapa and were welcomed onto a very nice man's porch. He gave us towels and shelter for a while. Then when the rain let up a bit, we met our friends who had been moved once more to a ballet studio," wedding guest Morgan Alcott explained. "We made it to high ground where there were some really nice people who drove members of our party back to the hotel. Once we got back, we celebrated at the hotel's bar with pizza and the [bride] and groom had their first dance."

In jeans and flip-flops, the couple had their first dance as husband and wife -- all during a wedding they, as well as their guests, won't ever forget.

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