A bride-to-be getting her hair done down the block from the Friday morning crane collapse was escorted through the chaos by an FDNY chaplain, who then married the woman and her groom on the spot.
The impromptu wedding took place on the steps of the nearby Tweed Courthouse — the Department of Education headquarters — where Nesh Pillay, 25, and Aaron Vanderhoff, 27, had originally planned to take their wedding photos before tying the knot at City Hall at 10 a.m. “It was really supposed to be a very simple ceremony with our immediate family,” said Pillay, who chose to keep her sur name. “My mom and sister and I went to get our hair blowed out at Drybar when my sister felt what she thought was an earthquake. Within a few minutes, the whole place cleared out.”
After being informed of a possible gas leak, Pillay threw on her wedding dress for the first time since trying it on last month and went outside to assess the scene. She tried to call an Uber to the salon, which is around the corner from the crane collapse at 180 West Broadway, not realizing that was impossible at that point.