Florist? Check. Photographer? Check. Police traffic coordinator? Double check.
Several Towson-area brides-to-be will share their big day Saturday with Michael Phelps, star of a parade that will shut down the town's main thoroughfare for hours. To something borrowed, something blue, add something stuck in traffic: an entire wedding party. Enough to morph the sweetest vision in white into Bridezilla.
"We freaked out a little bit at first," said Elizabeth Rowley, who is to be married at St. Pius X Church, situated on the parade route formerly known as York Road.
When Rowley, a second-grade teacher at Sandalwood Elementary in Essex, and Kevin Addison, a tech school student, decided to marry, there was no question where the ceremony would be. St. Pius was Rowley's home parish, where she'd made her First Communion and confirmation. She'd attended grade school there. Out went invitations to 300 of their closest friends.
Then came the moment of high wedding drama, just like on the soap operas, when someone pops up in the back of the church to offer a reason why this wedding should not go off without a hitch. In this case, the unwitting intruder was Phelps, who was just a pipsqueak freshman at Towson High when Rowley was a senior there.
When the parade plans went public about two weeks ago, Addison had the good sense to do what anyone should in an emergency; he called the police.
A lieutenant helped plot another route into the church, using a side streets and a side entrance. It's not perfect. One of the streets is one way, with parking on both sides. It's tight even when an Olympic hero isn't drawing thousands to the area. But it should help. Guests were notified via e-mail and the couple's wedding Web page. (Yes, weddings have Web pages these days.)
If the parade and street cleaners are through with the area ahead of the 6 p.m. wedding, the lieutenant has promised to call the groom. Addison, in what might be the least hedonistic last act of any bachelor, would then text guests to say York Road is open.
The wedding hitch has amused some of Rowley's school colleagues. They threw a surprise parade as she lunched in the teacher's lounge the other day, marching around with little American flags, a drum and pictures of Phelps. She's starting to see the humor.
"At first I was kind of stressed out about it," she said. "Now I'm just laughing about it and saying, 'It's gonna be what it's gonna be.' And at the end of the day, we're still getting married, and that's the most important thing."
