Irene an uninvited guest at Raleigh couple's beach wedding

"Irene is an uninvited guest," Amanda Bron said Thursday of the approaching hurricane. "That's what I sent out in my email this week to my bridesmaids."

Although the center of the Category 3 storm is expected to slide past the Cape Fear region and make landfall closer to North Carolina's Outer Banks, Wilmington still is expected to be buffeted by fierce winds and be drenched by up to a foot of rain on Saturday.

"We're going to have a hurricane wedding," Bron said.

She wasn't in such a good mood earlier in the week, when the threat of the storm looked like it would cancel the nuptials.

"First thing I did was call my maid of honor. She said, 'Stay calm. Everything will be OK,'" Bron said.

She and her groom, Henry Boyd, decided to move the wedding up to Friday, and everyone from the caterer to the band stepped up to make it happen.

They rehearsed by themselves with a minister and said they hope their families and friends can still make the main event.

"We expected about 260 (people), but probably about 120 will show up," Boyd said. "We're very thankful that everyone who can make it can make it."

Most guests will arrive just under the wire before Irene's outer bands starts pounding the North Carolina coast, so the couple plans on making the Friday night reception a hurricane party.

"It is a big deal, but I went from thinking on Monday that I wouldn't be getting married possibly to Tuesday figuring out we could do it on Friday," Bron said. "At the end of the day, we'll be married, and that's all we can ask for."