The soloist had laryngitis. The flower girl was ill with pneumonia. The ring bearer had an accident in his blue-velvet pants just before the ceremony, and the mother-of-the-bride left her dress at home by mistake.

Things continued to go downhill after the ceremony. It was the coldest day in Maryland in 20 years The newlyweds, Melissa and Tim Donnelly, had borrowed a 1941 Cadillac to ride away in. It got stuck in the ice in the church parking lot, so Melissa stuffed her gown into the back seat of a two-door compact car. The severe cold caused the water main at the reception hall to break, so the toilets functioned only because the reception line was turned into a bucket brigade.

But that's not all. In the apartment just below the reception hall, the resident had gone out of town and left …