When Trensie Williams and her fiancé Joseph Kirsh were forced to evacuate their hometown of New Orleans just hours before Hurricane Katrina slammed into the city, they took very little with them. The couple was supposed to be married in a few hours. Obviously, the wedding was postponed. But Trensie did tuck the marriage license into her purse. Then they fled to a shelter at the Mississippi Coliseum along with 3,000 others.


But women talk. And before you knew it, Rochelle Smith, who was in the shelter along with Trensie and who had been homeless even before the storm struck, decided this couple needed to get married. In style. So Rochelle went to work as a wedding planner. On Saturday, the couple were married with all the trimmings. OK, it wasn't a church with pews, but a shelter with folding chairs. But there was an Episcopal priest in full vestments, a bride in a wedding gown with a veil, a groom in a tuxedo and five bridesmaids in lilac-colored gowns.


"It's beautiful," said Trensie's mother, Evelyn, told AP. "It's real hard; we lost everything at once." Ah, but they have love. Thanks to Rochelle's impromptu wedding planning, the couple received donations from local businesses, including jewelry, shoes, hair and makeup services and the bridal finery. Local entrepreneur Bob Ford, who owns Sanctuary Golf Club in Brandon, got involved big time. Ford and his wife, Joyce, were cooking food for shelter residents throughout the week. When they heard about the couple, Ford volunteered to finance the ceremony. "We want to uplift everyone here...give people something to live for," he told AP.