Will Hurricane Irene Threaten Irene's Wedding?

Monogrammed wedding gifts are one thing, but an approaching hurricane named after the bride may be a bit much.

That's the plight facing Irene Rios and her fiancé, Darien Director of Health David Knauf. The couple is scheduled to marry on the beach at Savin Rock this Sunday in West Haven, not far from their home. 

The two have been planning the wedding for well over a year, Rios said, and it's all set to go — the food, the venue, and the 120-odd guests. But if current forecasts hold, a hurricane bearing the bride's name just as the two are set to tie the knot.

"If we could get a Vegas view of this, the odds of this happening are impossible I would think," Knauf said Wednesday.

According to the National Hurricane Center, Irene (the storm) is currently situated southeast of the Bahamas, but it's expected to make a turn to the northwest before passing along the Eastern Seaboard. Maximum sustained winds are already at 115 mph and could climb higher, forecasters say. 

The category 3 storm is likely to weaken by the time it reaches Connecticut — probably late Sunday or early Monday — and it could still turn farther out to sea. But even a near-miss might rule out a beach wedding, with high surf, large swells, and coastal flooding possible well beyond the center of the hurricane.

Rios, a dean at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, said the couple is worried about the forecast but is "trying to be positive and take it with a grain of salt."

"We really love Long Island Sound, and we wanted to get married outside here," Rios said. "We thought that was the thing to do. ... I can't stop laughing when I think about it now."

Rios said that family, friends, and coworkers have been commenting for the past few days on the odd coincidence of the storm's moniker.

"Who would've thought that a hurricane with one's name would be a guest at their wedding?" Rios said.

If conditions aren't too bad for safe driving, Rios said, the ceremony would be moved indoors at the Savin Rock Conference Center, where the reception is already scheduled to take place. 

"We're telling our guests to keep an eye on the weather and let us know if they can't make it here on the day," Rios said.

The bride has even emailed local meteorologists for the latest hints about Sunday's forecast. NBC Connecticut's Brad Field wrote back to her with a sympathetic note, she said.

"He wished us the best and invited me to contact him again for further updates," Rios said.

For now, all eyes are on the Irene's path — and whether it's likely to make an appearance Irene's wedding.

"It's shaping up to be a very interesting next few days," Knauf said. "I don't know what to say. I really don't."