A guest at a Florida wedding where the food was secretly laced with marijuana says she was so high and anxiety-ridden that she thought she was going to die and wrote herself a message on her phone in case she ‘didn’t make it.’
Miranda Cady, 38, attended the February 19 wedding as a guest of bride Danya Shea Glenny Svoboda.
The picturesque outdoor ceremony took place in a gated community in Longwood, a suburb of Orlando. Videos obtained by DailyMail.com show Svoboda crying at the altar and guests cheering with glee after she and her partner were officially pronounced husband and wife.
Those feelings gave way to confusion, terror and stupor after the nearly 70 guests – including elderly couples on medication – were served bread, pasta and desserts laced with marijuana. At least three people were taken to the hospital.
The bride, 42, and caterer Joycelyn Montrinice Bryant, 31, have been charged with delivering marijuana, tampering with guests’ food and misdemeanor culpable negligence after guests fell ill from the drugged dinner.
The tampering charge alone carries a maximum punishment of up to 30 years in prison.
‘It all hit everyone pretty instantaneously,’ Cady told DailyMail.com. ‘We were all fine and then we were all not.’
Speaking to WFTV, she added, ‘I actually text myself, at one time, a message just in case I didn’t make it through the night.’
A scared guest asked best man Matthew Svodoba what was going on. But Matthew, who works for the Department of Justice, appeared ‘incoherent and could not answer a question,’ according to an arrest warrant obtained by Law and Crime.
The bride and caterer turned themselves in to the Seminole County Sheriff’s Department and have since been released and are scheduled for arraignment on June 7.
Cady, an artist, met Svoboda through mutual friends in Orlando’s small business scene.
‘We’re all at events and gatherings regularly,’ she said. ‘Crossing paths monthly, quarterly is a regular thing in this town.’
The bride has ‘a great energy and vivacious personality,’ Cady said. ‘It was pretty traumatic – emotionally traumatic. I’m the type of person to walk into a room and everyone’s my friend.
‘To be violated this way from someone you like and trust is really hurtful. I didn’t have an option or say. Even if people avoided things like the olive oil, it was still in the bread, in the pasta.’
Guests were served a feast of bread with olive oil and a choice of two different pastas: cheese tortellini and lasagna.
The food ‘took forever’ to arrive, but the energy in the room shifted soon after guests cleared their plates. People weren’t getting up to dance.
‘Everyone was kind of sitting on the sidelines. That was kind of the first red flag. “What’s happening at this wedding?”
‘Around that time, we started looking around and everyone’s giggling. Someone had said, “Are we stoned?” Absolutely, we were out of our minds.’
Even recreational cannabis smokers said the normal-looking meal ‘hit them like a truck.’
‘You can only imagine the rest of us with no tolerance. We thought we were dying,’ Cady explained.
The artist says there were elderly parents and grandparents in attendance, including some who are on sensitive heart medications that should not be mixed with marijuana.
One woman took her mom inside the clubhouse for a glass of water, according to an arrest warrant. A kitchen staff member said they didn’t have any water, but asked if it was her stomach that was bothering her.
When the daughter said it was, the staffer replied, ‘Well, there’s cannabis in the food.’
Children sat at a different table so it’s unclear if they were served different food.