Couple Tie Knot at Hospital After Wedding Day Crash

(June 6) -- The maid of honor wore a cast and one bridesmaid rolled down the aisle in a wheelchair. Instead of formal heels, the bride padded through the ceremony in hospital socks.

Still reeling from a shuttle bus crash that killed a groomsman and injured their entire 14-member wedding party mere hours before their nuptials, Tom Hanley, 23, and Lauren Magee, 24, said "I do" Saturday in an impromptu ceremony at Indianapolis' Methodist Hospital.

"It was an emotional ceremony," Clarian Health spokeswoman Holly Vonderheit told The Associated Press.

Hanley, Magee and their wedding party were on their way to take pre-ceremony pictures when their limo bus collided with a sport utility vehicle in an Indianapolis intersection, tipping the bus and pinning bridesmaids and groomsmen beneath seats and baggage. Groomsman James Douglass, 29, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said, after suffering severe head trauma. No other members of the wedding party suffered serious injuries.

The group was taken to two local hospitals -- Wishard Memorial and Methodist, where Hanley and Magee, still grieving the loss of their friend, Douglass, decided to honor their plan to get married.

"We got their medical needs tended to, and we found out they wanted to get married here," Kelly Owens, an emergency room nurse, told The Indianapolis Star.

According to the Star, Owens arranged for a ceremony in a conference room off the ER. Nurses sprang into action, gathering cookies and punch, setting up chairs and using hydrogen peroxide to remove bloodstains from the beige bridesmaid dresses. Owens' husband found a replacement tuxedo for Hanley as Methodist security officers picked up the best man -- and the wedding rings -- from Wishard Memorial.

Father of the bride Chuck Magee called the scrub-clad nurses "angels in blue."

"The ER staff has just been compassionate, professional and considerate," Chuck Magee told the Star.

Bruised and bandaged members of the wedding party, including bridesmaids clutching yellow gerbera daisies, stood with Hanley and Magee as they tied the knot. One hundred tearful wedding guests huddled in the hospital conference room looked on.

"I've seen one or two brides come in, but this is definitely the first time we've done a wedding," Owens told the Star. "It makes the best of a bad situation."

The newlyweds and the wedding party were released from the hospital with minor injuries, according to published reports. After the emotional ceremony, the newlyweds proceeded to their reception site, the Mavris Arts & Events Center. Instead of an upbeat celebration, there was dinner and a prayer service for Douglass.

Indianapolis police said they are investigating the tragic crash that claimed Douglass' life and injured all of the bus passengers, including the driver, Jerry Lowry, who was held at Methodist for observation. The driver of the SUV, Camilo Ortega-Alvarado, 27, was uninjured and given a summons for never receiving a driver's license, police told WISH-TV.

Citing witnesses to the accident, WISH reported that the shuttle bus, which belongs to the Mavris Arts & Events Center, failed to stop at a red light and crashed into Ortega-Alvarado's GMC Yukon.

Indianapolis Metro Police Lt. Jeff Duhamell told WTHR-TV that Douglass, who was standing in the shuttle bus, was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

"According to the individuals inside, luggage and everything, seats, basically pinned everybody down. It was unfortunate. Sounds like the guy who was standing, it threw him up against (the SUV) and he took the brunt of the force," Duhamell told WTHR.

The newlyweds, both bicyclists, said on their wedding Web site that they attended the same Dublin, Ind., high school but did not become romantically involved until after graduation.

"We passed each other riding our bikes and decided to ride together," the couple wrote. "Training with someone else is way more fun."