COLFAX - When a wedding is more than a year in the planning, the families inevitably worry about all sorts of things that can go wrong.

What happened to National Guard 2nd Lt. Luke Buchs of rural Colfax and his bride, Army 2nd Lt. Danielle DeMent of Kankakee, "wasn't something that entered our minds," said his mother, Marcia Buchs.

Less than three hours before the ceremony, Buchs' Sparta-based unit was called up to fill sandbags to reinforce the levees in Quincy. The wedding went ahead as scheduled, but the honeymoon had to be canceled.

"It's your duty to go and do," said Marcia Buchs.

This was his first real Army experience outside basic training, she said. The son of Marcia and Gary Buchs was both excited about the opportunity to serve and disappointed about missing his honeymoon.

"I'm very proud of my new daughter-in-law; she took it very well," said Marcia Buchs.

Her son's new wife, an Army nurse, is visiting family in the Kankakee area, she said.

Luke Buchs' commanding officer got a phone call about 1:30 p.m. Saturday as he pulled into Immanuel Lutheran Church in rural Colfax for pictures. He and five other soldiers were to perform a saber arch for the newly married couple after the ceremony. Four of the six soldiers were in the same guard unit, so they also had to go.

That left two soldiers from Illinois State University's ROTC unit to perform the arch, Marcia Buchs said.

After the 4 p.m. wedding, Luke Buchs was allowed to spend one night with his new bride. Sunday, he donned fatigues and packed while glimpsing wedding gifts being opened.

The couple had planned to fly to Orlando, Fla., and stay at a family member's time-share property for a week - the same length of time as the expected deployment.

The trip was canceled.

As flooding threatened Illinois' Mississippi River communities, Gov. Rod Blagojevich deployed 600 Army National Guard troops, 100 Air National Guard troops and more than 200 minimum security prison inmates. Over the weekend and Monday, the troops filled about 1 million sandbags and placed them along the river and levees.

The Associate Press contributed to this story.