Estes Park Health Hosts an Unexpected Wedding

Bella Marino and Jack Holveck take their first kiss as husband and wife at their wedding at Estes Park Health in Estes Park, Colorado. (Photo credit: Dawn Wilson/Estes Park Health)

Nov. 24, 2025: Estes Park serves as a place for many near and far to host their destination wedding.

Whether happy couples descend from towns along the Front Range or cities of the Midwest, or farther, the stunning backdrop created by the surrounding mountain peaks draws those in love to say their vows throughout the year.

That was the dream of Isabella Marino and Jack Holveck, but fate had other plans.

Jack and Bella, the name her friends and family call the beautiful 27-year-old, met seven years ago in Tucson, Ariz.

Jack was stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near the University of Arizona where Bella studied and worked towards her dream of becoming a veterinarian. Fate intervened when their paths crossed at a brunch each attended with friends.

As Bella recalled the day they met, the expression on her face showed they fell in love immediately.

Seven years later, the young couple were now in Colorado.

She had come to Colorado to attend Colorado State University Veterinary College of Medicine in Fort Collins and Jack followed. They settled in this large northern Colorado town so Jack could work as a firefighter at Frederick-Firestone Fire District and Bella could complete a rotating internship at a veterinary hospital in Boulder while staying close to the university.

After he proposed, they knew Estes Park was where they wanted to host their wedding. They loved the mountains, and the town provided a close and familiar location for both of their families, spending many summers in Colorado growing up. Bella’s mom’s side of the family lived in the Denver area, where her Nani, Bella’s maternal grandmother, even worked as a nurse for 60 years at St. Joseph Hospital.

Something was wrong

Plans were set for a Friday afternoon wedding and reception on Nov. 7 at the Black Canyon Inn. Friends and family started to arrive in the days preceding the event to get settled and partake in the pre-wedding activities – a bachelor party for Jack and a rehearsal dinner for their wedding party.

About two weeks prior to the wedding, however, Bella started to feel some abdominal pain. She visited the emergency room at a hospital in Fort Collins on the Sunday before the wedding and was told it was probably an inflamed cyst. They gave her pain meds and sent her home.

She started to feel better and continued with the plans for the pending nuptials, arriving in Estes Park the Wednesday before the wedding.

After Bella finished a nail appointment, she, her sisters and her parents went to dinner, but Bella quickly realized something was wrong. Just before dinner she started to feel some pain in her lower back. After dinner, as she and her sisters worked on the bridesmaids’ gifts, the pain intensified. She made a visit to the Estes Park Health emergency department later that night.

After running tests, Chief of Staff Dr. Jennifer McLellan, determined she may have a ruptured appendix but there was too much inflammation to draw a conclusive diagnosis. Bella and Jack decided to postpone the big wedding ceremony. Even as Bella considered the severity of her potential diagnosis, the couple considered and worried about all the friends and family who had already arrived in town.

The staff of doctors and nurses stabilized Bella, relieved the pain and observed her over the next 36 hours.

That window of time, however, ran into the plans for the wedding that had been months in the making.

“It was important for us to still get married,” said Bella from her hospital bed. “I feel good and we want to do this.”

With the quick thinking of the hospital staff, and a passionate plea from Bella’s mother and grandmother, a wedding started to come together.

Wedding planning

On the morning of Friday, Nov. 7, calls started to come from Kendra Simms, Senior Director of Quality and Safety. Her detail-oriented, organizational skills as a nursing supervisor quickly started to shine in her new and unexpected role as wedding planner as she recruited various staff members to help with the plans. Facilities was called in to rearrange the furniture in the lobby. Marketing was called in to help with photography and video. A second photographer, the wife of a former staff member, offered pro-bono photography services to capture all the family photos and pre-wedding imagery. Hospital Environmental Services stepped in to vacuum, dust and arrange the lobby to make it look presentable as a wedding venue.

Bella and Jack’s officiant was already in Estes Park, and the florist delivered the flowers.

Bella’s sisters would do her hair and makeup, bringing bags of clothes, wedding accessories, hairstyling paraphernalia and makeup to the patient’s room. They even found white pajamas for Bella to wear along with matching maroon pajamas for them to match the theme of the wedding.

The fireplace in the lobby would serve as the altar. All the music selected by Jack and Bella was already loaded on Bella’s phone. Staff scrambled to find a Bluetooth speaker.

Checkmarks were quickly placed on the list of numerous wedding logistics.

Bella had her dresses available, deciding to wear her more comfortable rehearsal gown, a sleek white, floor length, halter dress, instead of the tighter formal wedding ensemble.

And all the while, Bella had to be checked, observed and treated by her medical team of doctors and nurses to ensure her health continued to remain stable – her physician Dr. Christine Bogardus, nurses Lidia, Samantha and Regina. They administered pain medicine and IV fluids. They checked vitals and readministered IV fluids for pain management, hydration and antibiotics as her sisters did her hair, blow drying it straight and then adding long curls.

As Bella’s sisters finished her hair and makeup, the girls’ grandmother walked into the room. Nani immediately started to cry.

“In all of my 60 years of nursing, this absolutely touches my heart,” said Barbara Wertz, Bella’s grandmother, as the family prepared to start the wedding. “This is what service is all about. It isn’t just one thing but the whole part, the whole person.”

It was time to put on the dress. The care team left the room while her sisters helped Bella get into her wedding ensemble. Someone yelled from the room, “which leg does the garter go on?”

Staff, not being well versed in wedding etiquette, relied on Google. Turns out it typically goes on the right leg.

Bella smiled through it all. The photographer even started to call Bella “bridechilla” – a play on the bridezilla term more frequently used for stressed out brides.

Slowly and cautiously, Bella exited her hospital room looking like a radiant bride – albeit with a hospital ID bracelet and an IV catheter on the back of her hand hidden by her corsage.

Bella’s mom held her long, flowing veil and waited for Bella to walk to the window along the hallway of the medical-surgical wing outside of her room. The light coming through the windows was perfect, gently illuminating the blushing bride.

Mom placed the veil in her hair as Bella held her bouquet of deep maroon, pink and wine-colored flowers.

After a few photos, the nurses assisted Bella into a wheelchair to take her down to the hallway behind the front reception desk where her father was waiting to see his daughter for the first time as a bride.

Her father, Vince Marino, an emergency room doctor who was experiencing a wide range of emotions during this unexpected change of events for his daughter’s wedding, gave an adoring look as he turned around to look at Bella before walking her down the “aisle.”

The wedding

Bella’s bridesmaids took the arms of their groomsmen as hospital staff members again relied on Google to learn if flower girls go before or after the bridesmaids. They wanted everything as perfect as possible.

Now it was Bella’s turn. The music changed and the wedding march played.

The guests stood and Jack looked towards the hall. His bride was about to be his wife.

Bella walked up to Jack, donning her white platform bedroom slippers covered in lace and topped with a satin bow on the toes, looking like the gorgeous young lady she was. Jack, tall and handsome, stood straight and was all smiles as his bride was doing everything she could considering her health concerns to see this day through.

Within eight minutes, Jack and Bella were now Mr. And Mrs. Holveck.

They gave each other a long kiss as the crowd clapped. Hospital employees who had gathered on the balcony above, cheered at their achievement after all this couple had overcome.

After a few photos of the bridal party, Bella, who continued to smile throughout the ceremony celebrating the beginning of her new life, accepted the wheelchair brought out for her by a nurse.

Jack followed by her side as they headed back to her hospital room. He looked adoringly down at his new wife, a beacon of positivity, optimism and enthusiasm for overcoming whatever obstacles fate threw her way.

A reception was to start in an hour. Bella, however, wanted to rest. The reception would have to wait.

“In the midst of a life crisis, major life events should be celebrated,” said Dr. Bogardus. “We did everything we could to accommodate that. Careful ongoing evaluations of the patient allowed us to safely accommodate the wishes of the family and to allow them to celebrate the start of their lives together.”

After the wedding

Although Bella was a trooper through the entire day, enjoying the attention and staying a positive, upbeat patient and bride all at once, the energy she used to get through the day took its toll.

Estes Park Health is a critical access hospital, a designation given to rural hospitals located more than 35 miles away from the next closest hospital and provides 24-hour emergency services along with other essential inpatient and outpatient care.

Estes Park Health provides excellent care for the approximately 6,000 year-round residents, the 5,000 summer residents and the more than 4 million people that visit the area primarily in the summer. Because of their location, they excel in emergency care, community medicine and medical-surgical services. They are not, however, a hospital designed to handle difficult and potentially serious health issues, such as ruptured organs.

That was the situation for Bella. So, on her wedding night, when most brides would be dancing the night away before their first night as husband and wife, Bella was whisked to UCHealth Poudre Valley Health in Fort Collins to attend to her medical condition.

She will make a full recovery but has some time ahead of her to recuperate. She and Jack are eager to continue their lives together, now as husband and wife.

Congratulations, Jack and Bella.