White wedding: Nashville couple marries on bridge in snowstorm

The Facebook plea, posted on the morning of Friday's snowstorm, read like this:

okay longest shot ever

my fiancé and I have planned to get married today on the pedestrian bridge

just happened to snow

anyone have a fur coat she can borrow? we will come get it. ‪#‏ thisweddingishappening ‬

And so it did.

After more than 800 likes and almost 200 comments offering coats and well wishes, Jessica Reed and John Pyle stood on Nashville's pedestrian bridge and said their wedding vows in the biggest snowfall to blanket the city since 2003.

Reed's cowboy-boot-covered feet sunk into the shin-deep snow as she walked. She clutched a bright bouquet of grocery store flowers between her frigid, gloveless fingers. And over her shoulders, she wore an elegant off-white cover, a 1920s wedding gift to a couple who was married over 50 years. The perfect accessory for an unexpectedly white wedding.

"A day to remember," Reed says.

Jan. 22 just seemed right. It was the date they first met one year ago. They wanted to declare their future together while overlooking the city they both loved.

The prospect of snow seemed easily surmountable at first. Early forecasts predicted it wasn't expected to start until midday, and they planned to marry around 3 p.m before it got too bad.

But Friday morning, it was clear the weather wasn't going to cooperate.

That's when Pyle posted his plea to the East Nashville Facebook page and their neighbors, all huddled in their homes, showed their heart.

"It's just so neat to see everyone come together and take care of a couple just because they love each other and want to get married," said Callie Ann Starkey, the close friend who officiated the wedding. "The city just kind of rallied behind it."

It was a younger woman, a stranger, who dropped off the fur. With its delivery, she helped fulfill the traditional rhyme about old and new, borrowed and blue — a saying that is supposed to bring a bride good luck on her wedding day.

The young woman also brought something else to Reed "the silver sixpence in her shoe."

The coin sat at the bottom of her boot as she and Pyle joined hands at the crest of the bridge Friday afternoon, the white haze of the city behind them.

I John choose you, Jessica, he said. They started with a prayer, and then, with snowflakes swirling around their heads and clinging to Pyle's long brown beard, they said their vows.

I choose to give you my whole heart. With abiding courage and faith. I choose to laugh, cry and grow with you. To respect, encourage and support you. I choose our unconditional love.

I choose our forever.

Even in the middle of thundersnow, love wins.

Reach Jessica Bliss at 615-259-8253 and on Twitter @jlbliss.