A lot of things can go wrong at a wedding, but for Visha and Ankeet Shah, what went wrong was rather unique. During their wedding, a tornado forced them and their guests to leave an upper floor of the Oklahoma City Convention Center to take shelter downstairs. Nearly 400 wedding guests had to share the first floor with a junior volleyball tournament that was taking place. Thankfully, all that went wrong ended up so right as the players celebrated the couple.
Prior to the tornado sirens going off, the wedding reception was in the middle of dancing the Garba, a traditional Indian dance.
“I remember them saying, ‘We have an emergency! There’s a tornado watch happening, and we need to take shelter and go downstairs,’” Ankeet Shah, the groom, told People. “I thought it was a joke at first, but then it turned into a reality, and we headed downstairs.”
Bump, set, celebration
In under 15 minutes, the wedding attendees were downstairs at the courts where the volleyball players were stretching before their match-ups. As everyone sheltered in place, the players started to notice what was going on. Wedding guests and players started mingling, with some players taking photos with the happy couple.
“We started kind of chatting with one of the coaches, and before we knew it, the girls ran onto the court taking pics with the couple and started chanting and lifting them up,” said Sydney Ore, the Shah’s wedding planner.
One thing led to another, creating a lively party atmosphere. Players joined in with guests to celebrate, clapping and chanting the bride and groom’s names. A mass of happy volleyball players lifted them both up into the air to celebrate.
“The girls were basically singing with us, dancing with us. They made us feel like royalty,” Ankeet said to KOCO News 5.
Shelter in place turned party in place
The volleyball players soon helped recreate the Garba with the guests.
“There’s usually music playing around and folks singing around with it, as well, but we did a silence dance with it, as well, and we looked over and saw the volleyball girls across the net doing a silent dance with us, as well, and that was super fun and memorable,” said Visha Shah, the bride.
What could have ruined the day turned out to be a wedding celebration that was more memorable than expected. A community of kind strangers came together, refusing to let the weather ruin the wedding or the volleyball tournament’s good time.
“It was amazing. It was the kindness of strangers truly. My tears were sad in the beginning but then towards the end it was happy tears,” concluded Visha.
