Tornado strikes Missouri event venue during wedding rehearsal

EUREKA, Mo. – A Missouri tornado almost delayed a couple’s wedding when the EF-1 twister ripped the roof off their event venue, but in less than 48 hours, the Brookdale Farms team scrambled to make it happen as planned.

The tornado hit on Thursday evening while the rehearsal was ongoing, with about 20 people in the building at Brookdale Farms in Eureka, Missouri, just outside St. Louis.

“My wedding coordinators really jumped into action when they saw the glass garage doors starting to bow in, and they got everyone to safety in time before a portion of the roof was ripped off,” Brookdale Farms General Manager James Vavak said.

Another building on the property also suffered significant damage during the twister. 

A portion of the event venue roof came off during the tornado, and one of the back doors was ripped out, but thankfully, no one was injured. However, the building was deemed unsafe, and the wedding was planned for Saturday evening, less than 48 hours away.

According to the National Weather Service in St. Louis, the April 16 EF-1 tornado caused the worst damage along Twin Rivers Road, where the venue is located. 

Vavak said when he returned to the farm after the tornado, he immediately comforted the couple.

“She was keeping it together a lot better than I think a lot of brides would, but I knew on the inside she was panicked,” Vavak said. “She’d been working on planning the special day for about two years, and all of a sudden, all of your planning has been thrown out the window, literally.”

Vavak told the bride he and his team would do everything they could to ensure the wedding happened how she wanted.

It came down to the wire, but they made it happen. 

Construction crews arrived at 7 a.m. Friday, and the final piece of the roof went up by 2:30 p.m. A county inspector arrived Saturday morning and gave Brookdale Farms a temporary permit, allowing the wedding to happen Saturday at 5 p.m.

Vavak said thankfully, the weather was good on Friday for the repairs and again on Saturday for the wedding.

With all the stress, Vavak said the venue and other vendors provided a few surprises for the bride and groom, including a complimentary cocktail hour with a drink named for the tornado called the “O’Driscoll Twister.”

The wedding went off without a hitch or another extreme weather event. Photos from the couple’s photographer show they embraced the crazy situation and even took some portraits near the leftovers from the damaged structure.