Smith: Wedding vows returning to Old Courthouse Square

We’re all invited to a wedding on Wednesday, three in fact. And we won’t have to dress up or visit a gift registry or stew over which side of the aisle to occupy.

It’ll be a first for Santa Rosa’s Wednesday Night Market when three couples recite their vows in the center of the new Old Courthouse Square at 7 p.m.

Amber Tansey and Gabe Eggers, Larisa Ashley and Noah Gunnell, and Roxanna Barker and Brandon Ashby will be married by Mayor Chris Coursey and Vice Mayor Jack Tibbetts, then they’ll dance their first matrimonial dance.

A bit about the betrothed, who embraced an idea by market manager Leslie Grave for an event that in a fractious time might bring people together:

Amber Tansy and Gabe Eggers knew each other at Santa Rosa High about 15 years ago and met up again four years back - at a Wednesday Night Market. Amber is deaf and will have a couple of friends there to serve as interpreters.

Gabe has decided he’ll take her last name.

Larisa Ashley and Noah Gunnell, both single parents, met only in January but say they’ve found the perfect match for themselves and their children. Larisa’s two kids and Noah’s one will be with them for the triple-header square wedding.

Brandon Ashby is a fairly private and reserved fellow, so the thought of getting married in front of a huge crowd on the town plaza rattled him. But the love of his life, Roxanna Barker, is reassuring. Brandon’s now eager for the big day.

A mini-Wedding Expo will accompany the nuptials, the likes of which were common at that spot most years between 1885 and 1970, when two successive county courthouses dominated the square.

The three couples will toast, then dance to The Platters’ “Only You.” I’m crying already.

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IT’S BEEN 15 DAYS since Lizzy Erhmann-Subia was horribly hurt and her unborn daughter was killed in a head-on crash on Highway 12 west of Santa Rosa.

Lizzy, a behavioral health clinician and the mother of 21-month-old Amelia, has undergone six surgeries and doesn’t know when she will get back home with her family.

Her mom, Pat Ehrmann, said it’s heartbreaking for Lizzy to be away from her daughter, but that her husband, Matt, is at her side daily and she’s receiving much love and support from people close to her.

One, Marissa Shmatovich, has opened a GoFundMe appeal to help Lizzy and Matt navigate the medical expenses and loss of income. It’s at gofundme.com/lizzies-medical-fund.

Lizzy, 33, was on her way to pick up Amelia from her parents’ home on the afternoon of May 22 when her Toyota Camry was slammed by a Toyota Scion driven by a man suspected of being under the influence. Hers will be a long road back.

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CHANGING LIVES is the theme of what looks to be a gas of a big band, food and wine fest Friday night at Windsor’s Mary Agatha Furth Center.

It’s a benefit for the nonprofit Disability Services & Legal Center. Sam Thomson says he’s alive in good part because of the agency’s help getting him off the streets and into a job.

“My parents picked out a headstone. There wasn’t much hope,” Thomson said. But today he’s working at Goodwill Industries, attending SRJC and talking up Friday’s benefit boogie in Windsor.

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.