Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 23, 1993 TAG: 9312230068
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MARA LEE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The bride wore white, the ground wore white, and the passers-by wore hospital whites.
Becky's father, Joseph Blackbert Jr., had a stroke last week and is in Montgomery Regional Hospital, so she and her fiance moved the wedding from their Radford apartment to the hospital's tiny chapel.
As at all weddings, the bride was sure everything was going to fall apart. "How is everybody going to fit in here?" she cried. "This snow is not good," she fretted.
But it was a beautiful wedding. Sascha Vest, the 3-year-old flower girl with a mop of platinum blond hair and a red taffeta dress, hardly pouted at all. Everyone oohed and aahed over her, and her proud mama scooped her up and whispered, "You're such a big girl."
The baby's breath and 45 bobby pins securing Becky's chignon didn't budge a bit, not even when her husband, Bryce Epperly of Radford, mashed a slice from the heart-shaped cake into her cheek and hit a tendril.
The two have been dating for a year, and became engaged shortly before Epperly went to National Guard training three months ago. "Three months, two days and five hours," she corrected.
So it was a little chaotic with 16 guests in the chapel with two pews, and four cameras' flashes going off incessantly.
But Epperly's voice was steady and strong when he said, "I will" and Becky Blackbert's smile was sweeter than the icing on the cake when he slipped the ring on her hand.
Of course, the mother of the bride sniffled a bit. "I'm sorry, Becky," Lorraine Blackbert said. "Mothers cry at their children's wedding. It's their prerogative."
And of course, the older brother had to tease his sister. When the bride said, "I tell you, this was a really weird ceremony," Joey Blackbert smiled and replied, "What do you expect with you?"
The nurses at Montgomery Regional made punch, cake, and decorated Classroom B with poinsettias. "I could not ask for better care or better caring people," Lorraine Blackbert said of the hospital staff.
Maid of honor Linda Lucas hurried back to Radford to prepare for the 30 reception guests, who joked that they might spend the nuptial night because of the snow.
Does it even need to be said that the bride was beautiful? "I know she's my daughter," Lorraine Blackbert said, "But she looks cute as a button."
Memo: ***CORRECTION***