The happiest day of their lives became a little more fabulous for one couple and their wedding party, who made an impromptu appearance in the Halifax Pride Parade in a determined bid to get to their venue on time.
“I’ll never forget it as long as I live. And I know my partner won’t either. It’s a privilege,” bride Patricia Lesperance Slaney told CBC News.
Lesperance Slaney had been engaged to Robert Salsman just under two years and were getting ready for their big day at the Lord Nelson Hotel on Saturday afternoon.
But when the time came to take a limo to the Saint Mary’s Boat Club, they realized they had a problem: South Park Street was shut down for the parade and the limo couldn’t pull up to the hotel. The street was scheduled to be closed until 3 p.m. — the same time as their wedding.
Lesperance said she wasn’t going to let a little thing like the biggest Pride celebration in Atlantic Canada get in her way.
“And I said no, no, we’re going. We’re just going to go pick it all up, take it with us. So everybody picked up something. I had this huge dress on and I just said … just dance, dance across the road. We all danced across the road,” Lesperance Slaney told CBC News.
She said amid the furor of planning the wedding, she and Salsman didn’t realize it was happening the same day as the Pride Parade, a massive event that draws thousands of people to downtown Halifax every year.
As the bridal party entered the road on a mission to get to the limo, Lesperance Slaney said spectators and people in the parade immediately began showing support.
“It was very exciting,” she said.
“It was the pump up I needed. It’s like having oxygen … that’s what it felt like, it was exhilarating.”
Soon a police officer appeared and offered to help them get to the car.
“He was wonderful … Everybody started cheering and laughing. I was just pounding, throwing my hands up in the air and it was amazing,” she said.
“It’s the best thing that ever could have happened to us all. It put us in a different frame of mind. It doesn’t matter, you know, There’s so many little things and we’re so lucky to be doing it. I’m 67, my partner is 68 and it’s probably the best day of my life.”
