Irene is the ultimate wedding crasher.
After days of nervously watching Doppler radar, New York bride-to-be Rona Geller yesterday reluctantly called off her Long Island nuptials rather than do battle with the potentially calamitous unwanted guest.
“It was the hardest decision I ever made,” Geller, a Paramount Pictures publicist, told The Post just hours after deciding her planned Sunday celebration would be no match for the storm.
“I’m still in shock,” said Geller, 38, whose fiancé, Michael Field, 44, is ironically the nephew of famed meteorologist Frank Field and cousin to popular TV weather-watchers Storm Field and Allison Field.
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And Michael’s brother, Joe, married wife Robyn during Hurricane Bertha, a Category 3 churner that hit Long Island in 1996.
“There’s a lot of irony here,” Geller said, chuckling.
The couple were slated to tie the knot in front of 150 guests at the swank Woodlands mansion in Woodbury.
“Nobody pulls the plug on a wedding!” she said.
She thought about consulting with the family weather experts but said, “Mike wanted it to be our individual decision.”
Geller wasn’t the only bride to bow to Irene.
Along the East Coast yesterday, white-knuckled brides from the Carolinas to Cape May, New York and Connecticut scrambled for a Plan B.
Venting their angst on Facebook and message boards, some decided to forge ahead with their plans, while others threw up their hands and rescheduled.
Geller initially tried to ignore the daunting weather bulletins.
“I thought it would just blow over,” she said. “I kept thinking, ‘They’re scaring me, but is there any truth to it? I just didn’t know what to do.”
On Wednesday, she was still optimistic — and even called the Woodlands and changed her “signature” wedding drink from peach sangria to a hurricane.
“I didn’t want to be one of those panicked brides,” Geller said.
By Thursday morning, the couple had grown increasingly concerned about out-of-town guests who were flying in from across the country and stood to lose money on flights or last-minute cancellations.
The bride fretted about power failures and guests, caterers and florists having to drive through the storm.
“I could take rain — I could take heavy, torrential rain — but I don’t want a catastrophe,” she said.
“I mean, you’re talking about my wedding date!”
Her decision made, Geller was up at dawn yesterday, calling friends and family to reschedule.
She and Field now plan to wed on Oct. 16.
“The Woodlands, the caterer, the florist — they were all really great about everything. I thought there would be additional fees, but they were very understanding,” said Geller.
Some relatives were already en route from Israel and expected to land last night.
Geller said they’ll have a family get-together, instead.
The would-be-bride and groom will head out on their Italian honeymoon Tuesday, as scheduled.
“We’re just doing it in reverse order,” said Geller.
Late yesterday, she still worried she’d made the wrong call.
“I hope there are brides out there who go through with their weddings,” Geller said.
“And I may regret this — but I think it was the right thing to do.”