A pregnant bride got married and gave birth at the hospital wearing a “wedding dress” made from bed sheets.
On February 16, only 10 days before Brianna Lucca-Cerezo was due with her first baby, she fell sick. “I woke up with a headache and a sore throat so I called my OBGYN who suggested I come (to the hospital),” Lucca-Cerezo, 25, of Orlando, Florida, tells TODAY.com. Contractions had started earlier in the week, but the almost-mom wouldn’t realize it until she got to the hospital.
The timing was inconvenient — Lucca-Cerezo and her fiancé Luis were getting married at City Hall on February 17, in a casual ceremony with extended family. Lucca-Cerezo hadn’t even ordered her wedding dress, having planned to do so that morning using Amazon’s same-day delivery service.
Lucca-Cerezo tested positive for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), however, and doctors at AdventHealth for Women decided to induce labor.
“I was panicking,” says Lucca-Cerezo. “There were so many things running through my head.”
A nurse named Elvia Birnholz began asking Lucca-Cerezo questions for paperwork, including, “Are you single or married?”
Lucca-Cerezo answered, “I was supposed to get married tomorrow but the baby had other plans today.”
Birnholz was surprised to hear it.
“We see moms who miss their baby shower because their water broke, for example, but I’ve never heard someone say, ‘I’m getting married tomorrow,” she tells TODAY.com. “We do have a chaplain, so I said, ‘Maybe they can get married here.’”
Although Lucca-Cerezo “sort of laughed off” the suggestion, she did have her marriage certificate and both wedding bands in her purse. “We decided, we’re doing this today,” she says.
Once word of a wedding spread, hospital staff jumped into action.
A nurse named Gaby Pinzon walked into Lucca-Cerezo’s room carrying a pile of bedsheets.
“She introduced herself and asked, ‘Is it OK if I make you a wedding dress out of sheets?’” says Lucca-Cerezo. Although she was surprised by the suggestion, “I was so grateful because I thought I’d have to get married in a hospital gown.”
Lucca-Cerezo showed Pinzon screenshots of the wedding dress, a halter-top style with an open back and a leg slit.
Thirty minutes later, Pinzon had fashioned a sheet dress that replicated the gown, “To a tee,” says Lucca-Cerezo.
Two doctors ran downstairs to the gift shop where they purchased flowers, another nurse appointed herself wedding DJ and Birnholz alerted co-workers that they were invited to a wedding.
Lucca-Cerezo’s immediate family (her mother, step-father and siblings) came to the hospital while Luis’ family hopped on FaceTime from West Virginia.
Luis waited nervously as his bride walked out from the bathroom, wearing her wedding “gown” to her chosen song, “Let’s Get Married” by Jagged Edge.
After the ceremony, doctors induced Lucca-Cerezo; 12 hours later, baby Landon was born on February 18.
The couple plans to have a proper wedding — with a proper dress.
“It’s my dream to get married on the beach,” says Lucca-Cerezo. “We’re inviting all the nurses.”