Flood moves wedding to hotel lobby

Flooding at the Pavillion at Hunter Valley Farm just hours before a wedding forced the couple to abandon their wedding plans and get married in a hotel lobby.

Newlyweds Victoria and Dalton Black spent years planning their dream wedding at the West Knoxville venue.

"I went through cancer throughout it, and he has a disease that we've both fought through it and through that time one of our saving grace has been we have this wedding to celebrate," said Victoria.

Instead of wedding bells, it was a wedding shower, and not the kind to celebrate. The venue flooded Saturday and had to be evacuated hours before their ceremony.

"I was slowly fighting a panic attack," said Dalton.

Everything had to be left behind, including the bride's bouquet.

"I was crying in the lobby right here," said Victoria. Because there were so many guests from out of town, she said rescheduling the wedding wasn't an option.

Hunter Valley Farm is not charging the couple for the wedding, but they said they've lost other deposits.

"We were out not only our dream wedding but thousands of dollars," they said.

They made the most of their big day. They were already in the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Farragut so they turned the lobby into a reception hall and a conference room into a pulpit.

"Our unity ceremony was a cup of coffee with sugar and creamer, we made it work," they laughed.

Hotel staff gave them the room for free, and served the guests freshly baked cookies. The couple's photographer,

, took multiple photos, including a shot of them in front of the hotel's sign.

"They're not getting out of here so why not offer up the hotel, use a meeting room, we don't have a full kitchen but we have cookies and coffee. It may not be special but it was memorable," said Chris Donovan, director of sales and marketing.

If rain on a wedding day really is good luck, these newlyweds are in for a lifetime of it.

"I don't think we would have changed it. At the end of the day we got married and the people around us love us," said the couple.