PHOENIX - It wasn't exactly Tim and Lacey's dream wedding. That was scheduled for about a week after the two ended up tying the knot.
"I've loved her from the first time I met her, and when she said, 'Let's get married now,' I was like, 'OK, sure let's go ahead,'" Tim Schlappi said.
The urgency was for several reasons. Tim was about to have surgery and would have his leg amputated a year later after a Navy sky diving accident he suffered near Eloy. It was becoming increasingly obvious their planned wedding would not be happening a week later in Virginia. That's when Lacey decided to suggest the couple get married right away.
"Never did a wedding in a hospital, never ever," said Sydney Vail, who was Tim's trauma surgeon at the Maricopa Integrated Health System. But he was also his emergency groomsman. "I tied his tie, wrote his vows, played music for him. It was thrilling because we were able to put his life back together. And I mean life in a serious sense. He got married," Dr Vail said.
Vail and the couple haven't seen each other in years, but they remain in contact because of the bond forged during the impromptu wedding.
"I don't think that I would have survived without the help of the people that were involved," Schlappi said.
Dr. Vail isn't the only person forever linked to this couple. A trauma nurse, the surgical resident at the time, a hospital chaplain, and even Curtis Larsen, the best man AND maid of honor.
"It's been so long since I've seen Tim," Larsen said.
Everyone is back in Phoenix for a reunion put on by the Maricopa Health Foundation's "Night of Heroes." The event is honoring this special moment 10 years later,as the Schlappis visit the Valley for the first time since leaving that hospital room.