Couple Who Missed Wedding After Crane Collapse Married by FDNY Chaplain

TRIBECA, MANHATTAN, NY - A chaplain with the New York Fire Department saved a young couple’s wedding when the bride-to-be was trapped inside a TriBeCa hair salon after Friday’s deadly crane collapse and couldn’t make it to the city clerk’s office in time to meet her fiance.

Nesh Pillay, 25, was getting her hair done with her mother and sister at The Dry Bar in TriBeCa when a crane collapsed along Worth Street, killing one and injuring three around 8:30 a.m.

“My sister heard the crane collapse, she said it felt like an earthquake,” Pillay told Patch.

She was supposed to meet her fiance on the steps of the Tweed Courthouse to take pictures at 10 a.m. and then head to the city clerk’s office. However, the bride and her entourage were told to stay put inside and couldn’t leave the salon until 10:30 a.m.

The salon was just minutes away from the site of the collapse. Pillay said she did a pretty good job of remaining calm since there was nothing she could do about the situation.

When she and her family finally left the salon, they found a number of street closures making it a nightmare to get to the courthouse. She had planned on taking a cab to meet her groom, Aaron Vanderhoff.

FDNY Chaplain Ann Kansfield spotted the bride wearing nothing but a spaghetti strap dress, shivering in the cold, she wrote in a Facebook post. Kansfield offered Pillay her coat and escorted her to City Hall. Pillay said Kansfield immediately explained who she was and walked her all the way to the courthouse. It took them a long time to walk the six blocks and they finally arrived around 11 a.m. The officiant was unable to wait.

What does an FDNY chaplain do in that case? Kansfield stepped up.

“So after getting her to the venue, I got to officiate,” Kansfield wrote in the post.

Pillay said she would not change a thing about her wedding day. While she tried to plan every last detail, the event reminded her that the best things in life are completely unexpected. She added that Kansfield, the first openly gay and first female FDNY chaplain, was also a special part of their wedding and she would never forget that day.

Pillay said it was important not to look over the fact that Friday was a tragic day. Her husband echoed the sentiment. “The outpouring of congratulations has been a magnificent gift to us today. Thank you all for your support. I also want to ask that we keep the families of the departed and the injured in our prayers tonight,” Vanderhoff wrote on Facebook.