Mad River lodge fire forces change in wedding plans

ZANESFIELD, Ohio — When Scott Ferguson arrived at his Grove City home on Wednesday night, his fiancee told him that she was about to post free advice online for anyone who might also be planning a wedding.

“Wedding Planning Rule No. 101,” Chelsey Orr told Ferguson, “is to have a backup location in case your reception hall explodes.”

They had to laugh, Ferguson said this afternoon, or they just might have cried.

The couple, who have dated for more than three years, is getting married on Saturday at Orr’s family’s farm not far from the Mad River Mountain ski resort, and they were supposed to hold their reception for 170 guests afterward inside its iconic ski lodge. But it went up in flames Thursday night, and the decades-old building was destroyed.

Orr grew up within sight of the mountain, and has been skiing there since she was barely able to walk. Her mother, Cynthia Orr, has been part of the ski patrol on the slopes for decades. The family lives so close that Cynthia Orr saw the smoke and flames that lit up the night sky for miles, and she raced to the scene right away.

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And from the parking lot, she worked social media networks and the phones.

“She told us not to worry about a thing, that it would all be OK,” Ferguson said. “I knew it would all be alright.”

By 10 a.m. today, the couple had booked the Whitmore House, a Victorian-style home set on lavishly-landscaped grounds in rural Bellefontaine.

Because the wedding service itself is scheduled for outside on the Orr farm, the couple already had contact information for all of their guests in case they had to move the ceremony at the last minute to a chapel because of bad weather.

“We’ve reached everyone to tell them, ‘Well, guess what? There’s been a change of plans,’” said Ferguson, a 31-year-old project administrator at an engineering consulting firm (one of three jobs he works; His fiancé is an occupational therapist.)

“There was some initial shock and awe about the fire. Mad River Mountain means the world to Chelsey. She grew up there. And we’re sad about what happened,” he said. “But it’s a structure and it can be replaced. No one got hurt.”

And life, after all, goes on.

The couple was supposed to be decorating the lodge tonight. Instead, she’s headed to a manicure and he’s cleaning house.

“We’re flexible,” he said. “Our story has a happy ending.”

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