The bride and groom share a romantic moment on the dance floor. (Photo by Skyler Lambert)
The drunken and flirty wife wandering around in cahoots with everyone.
Daniel comforts Megan during their speech. (Photo by Skyler Lambert)
The tipsy best man still in the immature college party mindset.
The bride’s sister focusing the spotlight on herself at all times.
These and other wedding party members were all on stage this past Saturday in the Adrian-Tobias Room for the second annual Chi Omega Make-A-Wish benefit dinner.
“I feel like it went really well,” organizer and junior Emma Donelson said. “I think that it was a good follow-up to our first year and we built off of it. We have enough room to build off [of] for next year. The style of the play this year was a lot better than last year. I think the audience had a lot more fun being involved in it, as opposed to just sitting and watching.”
This year’s event, “The Magical Happily Ever After Wedding Reception,” benefitted six-year-old Heath from Jasper, Mich. Heath, diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, had his wish granted to visit Walt Disney World in December. The dinner raised funds to foot the bill for Heath’s trip.
The dinner began with a short speech by Chi Omega president and junior Jessica Shovan about Heath and his background. Following the introduction, senior Ashley Bujega was asked to give the invocation over the food and have a moment of silence for the recent victims of the earthquake in Chile.
Donelson (Marissa-Clare, wedding planner) opened the “reception” by explaining how the groom (freshman TJ Behling as Eean Vanderson) met the bride (freshman Sammy Flores as Isabelle Vanderson). The audience watched a video of the proposal while the salad course was served.
In the film, Eean is nervous about the situation, so he consults his friend (and later best man) Caleb DeMartzo (freshman Bryce Greenfield), who gives him some tips on how to approach Isabelle when he pops the question. After stumbling, Eean finally finds the right words and things fall into place.
Eean and Isabelle were then introduced to the stage where they gave thanks to all who were in attendance and announced their decision to donate all funds from their “reception” to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. They couple then presented the remainder of the wedding party to the audience with flashy introductions. As the wedding party was seated, the characters were brought to life.
After introductions, Marissa-Clare rushes around to accommodate the final details of the reception. Her assistant, Natalie Block (director and junior Angelica Lopez), consults with her on a major issue about how “the band isn’t exactly a band.” Tom (junior Nathan Marks), the DJ for the reception, enters with a swagger in his stride, but Marissa-Clare doesn’t buy it for a second. As she prepares to give Tom the boot, Isabelle convinces her to let him stay. In the process, she discovers Eean went behind her back to help pick out the musician for the reception and she becomes distressed.
A second video was shown, detailing a scene between Isabelle and Christopher Michaels (junior Jacob Norman), Isabelle’s best friend and one of the groomsmen. Isabelle feels undermined because no one is aware it’s her wedding. Plus, her sister, Casey DeMartzo (sophomore Gabrielle Piazza) is grabbing all the attention and Eean’s widowed mother, Victoria Vanderson (junior Sherry Linton), doesn’t like her.
Isabelle’s parents, Daniel (freshman Garrett Beitelchies) and Megan Tifton (junior Dominique Fernandez), take the stage to give a small speech about how they are so pleased with Isabelle. Megan then invites Victoria to say a few words, who keeps it short and simple. Casey prays over the dinner, before relating the reception to her own personal experiences.
After the prayer, “guests” were dismissed by table to fill their plates with food from the buffet. The Sodexo-catered menu included green beans, mashed potatoes, pasta primavera, chicken marsala and rolls. During the dinner portion, the wedding party mingled with audience members.
“They were very generous and gracious and accommodating,” Donelson said of Sodexo. “They’re a really good company to work with. They were very personable and very good to have at the event.”
Following dinner, Caleb decides it’s time for him to make his best man speech about how he and Eean will no longer be as close as they once were. He then asks for Isabelle’s ring which has been resting on a stand next to the wedding cake. When Casey (his wife) opens the box, she discovers the ring is missing and problems arise among everyone. Isabelle storms away, while Chris vows to find the thief.
Emmaleigh Monroe (sophomore Laura Ashley Greer), takes the microphone to explain (in her obsessive nature) how grateful she is to be the maid of honor. Isabelle returns to the front table to be comforted by Rachel Walters (freshman Stephanie Pridgeon), one of her maids of honor. Chris continues his quest to find the ring by pestering audience members for their rings, but still comes up empty-handed.
The dance floor was then opened with the couples dance, daddy-daughter dance and dollar dance. (All money donated for this was also added to the Make-A-Wish fund.) Guests were permitted to boogie down after the preliminary dances took place.
Isabelle and Eean seem to patch things up a bit as they cut the cake (and feed it to each other in the traditional sense). Then, they toss up the garter and bouquet to the guests at the event.
Meanwhile, Chris’ rampage to the find the ring reaches an all-time high as he badgers all the audience members. Fed up with the chaos, Isabelle steps forward to protest against the harassment.
“What it comes down to is Eean and I’s happiness,” she declares loudly.
Victoria steps forward at last to admit to the thievery. Through gritted teeth, she reaches a compromise with Isabelle and all the pieces seem to fit back together.
Aside from Victoria and Natalie, the wedding party all leaves in pairs: Isabelle and Eean, Daniel and Megan, Casey and Caleb, Emmaleigh and Tom, Chris and Rachel and Marissa-Clare and guest Josh White all exit the “reception” for the after-party.
“Having the end result, knowing that we’re granting Heath’s wish, made it a lot easier,” Lopez said. “When things come up, I know that I have an entire sisterhood full of sisters who are willing to step up to make this event good, not just for this chapter, but for Heath’s family as well.”
Throughout the night, guests were permitted to place bids in a silent auction. Items which were up for sale included pictures, articles of clothing, a clock, candles, jewelry, gift cards, a pillow, a handbag and gift baskets.
Counting the Chi Omega sisters, approximately 160 guests attended the dinner. Each individual was seated at a table with seven other guests with personalized name cards at each setting.
Despite last minute changes, including a switch from senior Laura Shank to Piazza for Casey DeMartzo, Lopez believes the event allowed the sisters to bond together under pressure.
“It just shows how close we are,” Lopez said. “No matter what came up we were able to handle it and we are all happy with how the show went.”
In addition to the benefit dinner, Chi Omega also volunteers in other community service projects throughout the semester. A number of sisters recently participated in the Daddy-Daughter Dance at the Adrian Community Center for a second straight year. They also hold a Pie-A-Chi event during the fall semester and many sisters volunteer at institutions like the Humane Society and the local nursing home.
Victoria exposed herself as the ring thief. (Photo by Skyler Lambert)
Lopez and the other sisters are considering a children’s birthday party theme for next year’s event.
Eean and Isabelle cut the cake together. (Photo by Skyler Lambert)