For 亚洲天堂 Lake residents Jesse Bird and Katy Burkholder, a wildfire evacuation was not a good enough reason to postpone their wedding.

After two years of planning, their wedding was set to take place last Saturday in 108 Mile Ranch. But plans had to change after the town was evacuated on July 7 due to the Gustafsen fire.

Instead of postponing their wedding, however, the couple was determined to find a new location.

鈥淲e had some family in Clearwater and we thought we could get married there, but then I heard they were also evacuating,鈥� said Bird.

鈥淜aty鈥檚 friend knew of a place in the Salmon Arm area that her mom had got married the year before, so they started looking into it and it was available, so we started shifting things there.鈥�

鈥淜aty, her family and friends spent their days on the phone to transfer the event.鈥�

Being a firefighter with the B.C. Wildfire Service, Bird was busy being deployed to a Kelowna flood camp while this was happening.

鈥淲e pulled in a lot of resources from our family and friends and they all really gave us a big hand [to transfer the wedding],鈥� he said.

The approximately 60 guests will include Bird鈥檚 family from Calgary and Burkholder鈥檚 family from the Lower Mainland.

Bird said there鈥檚 bit of irony in the fact that he鈥檚 a firefighter who鈥檚 had to change the location of his own wedding due to a wildfire.

鈥淪ome people might look on the dark side of that, but I just think that if we can make through all these trials and tribulations, then I see us having a long lasting happy marriage for years to come,鈥� he said.

鈥淲e鈥檒l remember this wedding for our entire life just because of the things we had to deal with,鈥� he added. 鈥淟ike I said before, it鈥檚 a wedding forged in fire.鈥�

Their honeymoon had to be cut short as Bird was expected to return to work on July 25 to help with the provincial wildfire situation.

鈥淲e鈥檒l have to wait until the winter for our honeymoon,鈥� he said.