Couple in traffic almost misses wedding

ISLE OF WIGHT, Va. (WAVY) - An Isle of Wight couple nearly missed their wedding after sitting in traffic for six hours Saturday during two scheduled bridge closures .

Home video shows Jason Gilliam and his bride to be pulling into the driveway of their wedding location almost five hours after they were supposed to exchange 'I do's.'

"I was not in a good mood when I got there," said Briana Gilliam.

The couple had been stranded on the Peninsula during scheduled closures at the HRBT and the James River Bridge that left drivers with only one way to get to the southside.

"There was a lot of silence after a while," said Jason Gilliam.

"There really was," added Briana. "Because there was nothing you could do but get frustrated with the whole situation."

The wedding day started with an unexpected medical emergency. Briana fainted at her morning hair appointment in Newport News. Jason rushed to pick her up at the emergency room. The plan was to be back for the ceremony in Carrollton by 6 p.m.

"We left about 3:30 p.m. and tried Warwick Boulevard," said Jason. "We moved five blocks in about an hour."

That's when the phone rang. And the couple found out, they weren't the only ones stuck in the traffic.

"Our minister called us and was like 'Hey, do you want to catch the ferry? It might not be everybody's idea,' and we were wrong, obviously," said Jason.

Like the line at the Monitor Merrimac Memorial Bridge Tunnel, the line for the Jamestown ferry stretched miles long. Frustration turned into fear. Briana worried the wedding date would have to change.

"At one point my sisters called me and said, 'If you have the minister with you, you should just get married on the side of the road and you'd have a great story,'" said Jason. "But, my mom would have killed both of us."

And when the couple finally arrived around 11 p.m., they found 50 guests, digesting dinner. Briana had just enough time to put on her dress.

"We still got to do the ceremony and have our first dance and dance with our parents and everything," said Briana. "But we were so exhausted. We were just ready to get home."

Needless to say when the Gilliams go on their honeymoon, they are taking a boat.

"It's a cruise!" laughed Briana.