As a gray Dodge accelerated toward the crowd gathered in Charlottesville last year, Marcus Martin made a pivotal, quick decision.
He pushed his fiancée, Marissa Blair, out of the car’s path as it barreled through the crowd. As for Martin, he was tossed into the air — a moment captured in the defining images of the violent protest on August 12. He was left with a broken leg.
The couple got married in a ceremony Saturday, for which more than 30 vendors pitched in to help them experience their dream wedding.
“It proves hate won’t win and it proves that there are more good people in the world than there are bad and that love will win,” Blair told CNN affiliate WVIR about the community outpouring.
Their ceremony also honored their close friend, Heather Heyer, who was killed in the vehicle attack that day. Heyer, a 32-year-old Charlottesville paralegal, had been demonstrating against the “Unite the Right” rally.
They selected purple — Heyer’s favorite color — as their wedding color. And Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, led the crowd in a butterfly release in remembrance of her daughter during the wedding, reported WVIR.
James Alex Fields Jr., the man prosecutors say drove the car that killed Heyer and injured Martin, has been charged with murder and other offenses.