Wedding Party Makes the Most of Getting Trapped in Elevator Before Ceremony

— -- Pulling off the perfect wedding is stressful enough when the ceremony isn’t delayed by the entire bridal party getting stuck in an elevator.

That is exactly what happened to Liz Copeland and Harry Stein at their wedding last weekend in Alexandria, Virginia. Liz and Harry told ABC News that they were heading down to the Potomac Riverfront for their wedding ceremony. They got into an elevator along with their entire wedding party -- parents and grandparents, two wedding photographers, a rabbi and wedding planner -- 24 people in all.

The couple got married at an old torpedo factory, Stein said, “So the elevator was pretty big.”

Still, that didn’t quell all fears.

“When we were getting in, Liz’s mom goes, ‘Gee, this is a lot of people, I hope we don’t get stuck,’” Stein recalled, noting the elevator went down a couple of feet and then stopped. “There wasn’t really a crash or anything. It just stopped.”

Christy Kissick, one of the wedding photographers, eventually hit the emergency call button, which dispatched the Alexandria Fire Department.

The couple doesn’t know exactly how long it took for help to arrive, but it was long enough for people at the ceremony to grow concerned. Liz and Harry said people at the ceremony had begun to text people who were in the elevator wondering if everything was alright.

Back in the elevator, however, spirits remained high. People took selfies and laughed, and the bride “just started posing for pictures,” Kissick said. “She was so calm and level-headed.”

When asked how she kept calm throughout the ordeal, Copeland said, “If I freaked out, other people would’ve freaked out, and it would have ruined the rest of the day.”

Cheers and applause broke out in the elevator when the fire department showed up to rescue the trapped wedding party.

After that small hiccup, the wedding of Liz and Harry ended up going off without a hitch.

“Because of the delay, we were treated to a beautiful sunset ceremony,” Copeland said. And now, this wedding party has a memorable story to tell for years to come.