When Ash Bent's Surf Coast wedding venue had to be evacuated at 1pm on Saturday, 90 minutes before the ceremony was meant to start, he thought the nuptials would have to be called off.
But thanks to his guests and two Lorne venues, Mr Bent and his bride, Maddie Bent, were exchanging their vows at the beach three hours later.
"It was crazy," he said.
"We have an unbelievable amount of gratitude to our friends and family and the community of Lorne for being able to make this happen."
The wedding was meant to take place at The Peak, a venue at the top of the seaside town near the golf course.
But with a planned burn at the edge of the site and extreme fire conditions, co-owner Matt White evacuated the venue on Saturday afternoon after a discussion with the local Country Fire Authority captain.
"All the staff got together and tried to think about how we could get the wedding to happen," Mr White said.
"We got the catering supplies into multiple cars and the work van, and we got in touch with the bridal party about what options we could give them."
'Emergency wedding'
One wedding guest had a connection to Andrew Landos, the owner of a beachside restaurant in Lorne called Almyra.
Mr Landos said he was called at about 3pm to see whether the venue could host a wedding for 120 people as soon as possible.
"We are a big venue, we've got several areas," he said.
"So we [did some troubleshooting] and organised for some of our bookings to go into the dining room, so our marquee and some of the deck areas could be used for the emergency wedding."
Mr and Mrs Bent were exchanging vows at the beach in front of the venue at 4.15pm and the reception began at 5pm.
"It was a massive team effort," Mr Landos said.
"Everyone ended up fitting perfectly — I'm so happy for the lucky couple."
The restaurant has two kitchens, so staff from the original venue were able to use one to prepare canapés while the other kitchen continued normal service.
Staff from both venues worked together to serve drinks.
Mr Bent said he and his wife still can't believe they pulled it off.
"We had multiple people say, 'I don't know what plan A was, but plan B was amazing,'" Mr Bent said.
"It was the best day of our lives."
On Saturday Victoria experienced strong winds and temperatures between 37 and 42 degrees Celsius.
There were a number of fires burning near the Great Ocean Road, including one near the golf course at Lorne.
During the day, two fires were burning at watch and act level on either side of Lorne — one at Eastern View, near Fairhaven, and another at Kennett River.
All fires were at advice level by Saturday evening.
