Stormy Wedding: Rehearsals by Candlelight

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Amber Fleming of Du Quoin and Justin Sargent of Springfield, Ala. will remember their wedding for years to come.

Their wedding processional began and the bride came down the aisle at Gospel Assembly Church on the city's east side Saturday only hours after the worst spring storm in Southern Illinois history.

In fact, there was no power for the Friday rehearsal, and members of the wedding party practiced by flashlight.

The father of the bride, John (J.W.) Fleming, stood vigil Friday night over an electric generator that was keeping items in refrigerators for the wedding reception cold.

Girls who were part of the bride's party were relocated from an upstairs church apartment.

Groom Justin Sargent and his groomsmen spent the night in a large, comfortable RV in Mr. and Mrs. Jess Coffel's driveway--Amber's grandparents.

Amber had planned to share a wedding duet during the ceremony despite the onset of what seemed like bronchitis, and she tried her best to save her voice for the 12 noon Saturday wedding. Despite her best efforts, it turned into a full-blown flu by Sunday.

Guests from Missouri, Birmingham, Louisville, East Moline, Anna and Eldorado found housing.

The lights came on at their church at 12:30 a.m. Saturday morning. The wedding was beautiful. Amber and Justin--childhood sweethearts whose love of each other dates back to attending church camps as children--have already met the tests of "through sickness and health" and inland hurricanes. Congratulations to all.