Couple gives blizzard the cold shoulder

Nick and Allison Gubelli will never forget their wedding — it was almost canceled due to a record-breaking snowstorm. However, an army of family, friends, vendors and local businesses stepped up and saved the day.

On Jan. 23, a blizzard dropped over two feet of snow on the South Shore. “Lo and behold, it actually ended up being an amazing day and a blessing,” said Nick. “I didn’t think that this storm was actually as big as I’ve come to officially realize. Snow fell in 25 of the lower 48 states… it definitely came in fast and hard, and the amount of snow complicated the day for us, which we gracefully overcame.”

The couple had asked their friend the Rev. Rob Ketcham to officiate the wedding. But Ketcham was traveling from hard-hit Washington, D.C., and could not make it to St. Christopher’s Catholic Church in Baldwin.

Church staffers cleared the steps, and inside the pews were adorned with bows, provided by Mildred and Jerry Murphy of Garden Gate Revisited. The Rev. James Hansen of St. Agnes Cathedral stepped in, and married the couple.

Their limo company canceled, but Island Park-based Broward Limousine, headed by Bob MacDonald, picked up Allison, Nick, their families and their wedding party at their homes in Rockville Centre and Baldwin. “You would have thought I was his daughter by the way he treated me,” Allison said of MacDonald.

Originally, the couple planned to have their reception at Bridgeview Yacht Club in Island Park, but workers at the venue said they should postpone it because of the snow. So, the night before the wedding, Allison’s brother’s fiancée, Liz Compagnoni, got in touch with Tom Mahoney, the owner of the restaurant MacArthur Park in Rockville Centre. (Compagnoni used to work there.) Mahoney gathered his full staff for the occasion.

Allison was excited enough to see 30 people at the restaurant — and then Mahoney led her to the back room, where more than 100 more people were waiting. He had also stopped at Mario’s Bakery in Oceanside to pick up a custom cannoli cake.

Allison’s cousin Lauren Jaeger contacted DJ Pace of Oceanside. “He was really what made the party,” Allison said. “He literally made MacArthur Park a wedding reception.”