New Jersey couple gets married at hospital moments before having first child
The couple initially planned to be married a few weeks before the birth.
A New Jersey couple had an unforgettable Memorial Day. Not only did they get married, but immediately afterward, they welcomed their first child.
Michael Gallardo and Marie Margaritondo celebrated the wedding and birth at Morristown Medical Center in Morristown, New Jersey, according to a news release from the hospital. The couple, from Westfield, New Jersey, were initially set to have an intimate wedding weeks before their child was due, but Margaritondo's water broke three weeks early, according to the release.
The couple already had their marriage license but did not want to list Gallardo as “fiancé” on the birth certificate, so they asked the staff if they could be married then and there at the hospital, the release said.
The staff stepped up to help put the wedding together.
“Everyone was incredible,” Gallardo said, according to the release. “The nurses were scrambling — one was trying to get ordained online, one went outside and picked flowers for a bouquet, others were monitoring Marie and the baby’s vitals.”
An on-call chaplain was there to perform the ceremony, which Gallardo said included flowers, the bride’s and groom’s mothers and an exchange of vows, according to the release. Marie was then taken to the operating room for a C-section “less than a minute” after the wedding, the release said, after which the couple’s son, Michael Preston Gallardo, was born.
“We could not be more blessed and more grateful,” Marie said, according to the release. “I can’t believe this is our story.”