Despite fire and evacuation, North Jersey wedding venue finds way to pull off couple's special day
ROCKLEIGH, N.J. -- Imagine the night before your wedding, a fire rips through your venue. It could have been several brides' nightmare when that actually happened in northern New Jersey this past weekend.
But as CBS2's Jenna DeAngelis found out Monday, some couples were still able to have their "happily ever after."
When the blaze broke out at The Rockleigh on Thursday night, smoke and flames were shooting out of the building, which was evacuated right before a wedding.
Seeing this, Danica DeVito had to brace herself.
"I was just in shock, like mind blown, like very, very upset," DeVito said.
Her wedding was two days later and the facility was her dream venue.
"Thursday, they pretty much told us there was a fraction of a chance of roughly a wedding happening, and then Friday, sometime after noon, it turned into like 50 percent, and I was super hopeful. But I didn't want to get my hopes up too much," DeVito said.
The Northvale Police Department said in a statement, "Fire departments from Rockleigh, Northvale, Norwood, Closter, Harrington Park, Old Tappan, Demarest, Emerson, Tappan, N.Y., Piermont, N.Y., and Sparkill, N.Y. responded. The fire was knocked down and under control in approximately 30 to 40 minutes. EMS units from Northvale, Closter, Norwood, South Orangetown and several other towns responded as well."
Not long after, The Rockleigh crews began working around the clock to make repairs. Most of the damage was in the boiler area and floor above.
"Within hours, literally hours, there were 50 people in this building and a plan was put into place exactly what to do," said Michael Subarsky, the venue's director of business development.
Workers reconstructed, repainted, cleaned, and aired out the space.
The venue had to close Friday, but helped move events to other venues. DeVito didn't want to relocate and held out hope for Saturday.
"The owner was in touch with us and said, 'We're hosting the wedding tomorrow.' It was like the best feeling ever," DeVito said. "It was unbelievable that we walked in on Saturday. If you never told me there was a fire, I would have no idea."
When asked how the wedding went, DeVito said, "It was awesome. It was like the best night of our lives."
"It's an example of what could be done, what is possible when it seems impossible," Subarsky said.
"It was so worth it, and now it's a great story now, and so happy to add that ending that we wanted," DeVito added.
The venue has weddings booked all week and says they will go on as planned.
The fire broke out right before another wedding, which wasn't able to go on because the building was evacuated. The venue says its working with that bride and groom and it's a priority to please them.
