CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand - A woman pulled from the rubble of New Zealand's earthquake three days ago got married on Friday, in a poignant glimmer of hope for a country coming to terms with the disaster.

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Emma Howard wed partner Chris Greenslade in a church just yards from a school hall where the families of the 200-plus missing were told there was little chance of more survivors being found.

As distraught relatives of those missing filed into the hall to be addressed by rescue authorities, Howard acknowledged she was fortunate the wedding was going ahead as planned.

Prior to the service, she said she was lucky to be alive after spending more than six hours trapped in the Pyne Gould Corporation Building after Tuesday's devastating 6.3 earthquake in New Zealand's second largest city.

"I'm so lucky I didn't get under my desk," the 23-year-old accountant told Radio New Zealand. "My desk was crushed by the corner of the concrete (ceiling) above me that came down."

Howard was able to text her fiance, who raced to the site and joined rescuers frantically digging into the rubble to find her after six hours.

The priest who married the couple said the ceremony would be "especially poignant" given the devastation.

"I've just been on the phone this morning, speaking to a man who's going up to that same building to show his little toddlers where their mum is buried," Father John Adams told The Press.

"Just a couple of floors up, we're marrying a girl who escaped. It's especially poignant for that reason."

The families of the missing who attended the briefing in the Christchurch suburb of Burnside were told to prepared for a long recovery operation.

"They told us what's going on with the search. It will be a long process," said a young man whose wife remains entombed in the same building from which Howard escaped.

The man, who did not wish to be identified, described the 90-minute briefing as "extremely informative".

"I think they were fair," said another man who has a friend unaccounted for. "They are in the process of finding bodies."

The emotional toll of the meeting showed as the relatives, many of them weeping, left the meeting silently, heads bowed and unwilling to talk to the news media.

One became abusive before police asked waiting journalists to leave the area as their presence was upsetting the families.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully said there would be "very bad news" for families around the world as a result of the quake which devastated central Christchurch, including a language school housing many foreign students.

"There will be families receiving the worst type of news in the next few days," he said.