Vows Exchanged in Herald Gazebo; He’s Afghanistan Bound

RIO GRANDE – Their whirlwind wedding gave new spin to the bridal custom of “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.”
Erika Leaver and Michael Klinger were married the afternoon of Mon., Aug. 15. The venue was the gazebo outside the Herald Building on Route 47. Planning for the event took a total of three hours. You read that right, three hours. And that’s where their story begins.
Leaver and Klinger, both 25 and from Villas, were high school sweethearts. During the last 10 years they have weathered the ups and downs of life. After becoming engaged, the couple was planning a huge, formal wedding in the Spring of 2012.
Their wedding plans had to be put on hold when Airman First Class Klinger, a member of the New Jersey Air National Guard, received deployment papers. He’s scheduled to go to Afghanistan in October.
Like generations of brides and grooms before them, with a war half a world away calling, the couple wanted to tie the knot before he left. Because of military paperwork, they had until Aug. 19 to marry.
Leaver, who works at the Arc Thrift Shop in Rio Grande, told the women she works with of her dilemma. And that’s when the wedding wheels went into high gear.
Debbie Wilson and Dottie Brittin coordinated the wedding – in three hours. And the stars all seemed to come into alignment for the couple.
A preacher? Debbie Wilson’s husband, Rev. Milt Wilson, is the minister of the Good Samaritan Baptist Church in North Cape May. He was available.
A venue? The Herald gazebo located not a parking lot away.
Decorations? There was a thrift store laden with supplies.
A dress? Leaver wanted to wear the dress she wore at her graduation (more on that later). A tux? No need for that. The groom would wear his Air Force blue uniform.
A license? They already had it in hand.
Debbie Wilson and Brittin went into action that would make a general proud. With deft precision they went “shopping” in the store and filled their cart with silk flowers, a tablecloth, candleholders, white sheer curtains, a spool of ribbon, and even a patriotic area rug that they planned on using as a backdrop for this military wedding.
The wedding was scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. Like most weddings, it got off to a late start. The groom had been at the dentist that morning having a tooth extracted. The bride’s dress didn’t make it to the wedding so she had to go shopping on the thrift shop racks for the most important dress of her life.
Meanwhile, a small group of Herald staff members gathered outside. They had gone to ShopRite and bought a small cake and a dozen roses for the bride to carry. They also provided a CD player with classical music for the bride to walk down the grassy aisle to meet her groom.
The bride’s grandmother, Sigrid McCann, was radiant as she gave her granddaughter away in marriage.
“I got a phone call today at work,” said McCann. “Erika asked me if I could come by her work.”
During the service Rev. Wilson told the couple, “We have waited a long time for this, and you have waited a long time, too. I believe the two of you are going to be greatly blessed.”
As part of their ceremony Wilson recalled the story of the Creation. He reminded the couple that God had created man and then wanted a partner for him. While Adam slept, he took a piece of rib from his side to create a woman.
“He could have taken a piece out of his head,” said Wilson, “so that he could lead over her,” he said. “Or, he could have taken a piece from his foot, so he would rule over her. But instead, he took a piece from his side, so you could do as you do today – walk together.”
With the sharing of vows and the exchange of rings, the couple was pronounced husband and wife. After sharing their first married kiss, Leaver, now Mrs. Klinger, reached up to her husband’s face and did what every wife has done for centuries before her has done…she wiped her lipstick off his face.
The groom’s mother, Marlene Leonard, shed tears of happiness as the couple exchanged vows. She received a phone call, too, a few hours before the wedding. “I wish for them peace and a happy life,” she said after the ceremony.
“It was fun. It was definitely a surprise,” said the new Mrs. Klinger.
What kind of honeymoon follows a wedding that was planned in three hours? A long one once Klinger returns from Afghanistan. “Maybe Scotland,” he said. “We’ll do it when I get back in February 2012.”
The couple still plans on having their dream wedding when Klinger returns; the one with the white dress, tuxedos, and a reception.
But this wedding? “It was a spur of the moment wedding if I ever saw one!” said Leonard.