My daughter was raised by “theater geeks.”

She started attending our dinner theater shows at the age of four and she had a knack for learning dozens of Broadway show tunes from favorites like “Fiddler on the Roof,” “The Sound of Music,” “Cinderella,” and “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.”

Her fiancé grew up in the magic world of Walt Disney, having seen every movie from the famed studio as well as numerous trips to Disney World in Florida and the original Disneyland in California.

So when Katie Marois, of Poland, and Will (BJ) Nadeau, of Lewiston, began planning for their wedding this summer, it was no surprise that the event would include a series of Disney and Broadway themed items.

Guests were introduced to the themes long before the wedding day when they received an invitation on a Playbill magazine cover. The guests were invited to a one night performance of “North – A New Marriage,” starring Katie Marois and BJ Nadeau as produced by Marois & Nadeau Productions, the respective parents of the couple. On the RSVP card, guests had to indicate the number of tickets requested for the event. The playbill included directions to the church in Mechanic Falls with a note that they could pick up their tickets at the box office at the reception hall in Lewiston.

“The playbill cover featured a couple on their wedding day,” said BJ, who has actually worked at the Florida Disney park. “The couple was Mickey and Minnie Mouse complete with a tux and top hat and bridal dress and veil.”

On the wedding day, the first hint of Broadway occurred at the church ceremony when my wife, Denise, and I, surprised the couple with a rendition of “Sabbath Prayer” and “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof.

“We were lighting the candles after the ceremony and suddenly my parents were singing these very special songs,” said Katie. “It was very touching and there wasn’t a dry eye in the church.”

Tucked away carefully in the brides bouquet was a floral arrangement with a red outline of a Mickey Mouse face and ears on a white background. In the center of the flowers was a small black silhouetted “hidden Mickey” face.

Even the wedding rings were specially designed with three birthstones on them perfectly aligned to form a Mickey Mouse face.

At the reception, at the Carriage House in Lewiston, the guests were greeted at the “box office” where they received their seating arrangements. A crew of ushers escorted each guest to their seats. At each table, there was a show poster with Disney characters in Broadway show roles. For instance, one of them showed what would happen if the cast from the movie “The Lion King” appeared in the Broadway show “Cats.” Each table had a miniature battery-operated spotlight shining on the posters.

Each guest received a commemorative theater program that featured producer’s notes (comments from the parents), a list of the cast members (wedding party), and a page of cast bios written in a “Who’s Who in the Cast” section.

It was no surprise to anyone that when the married couple entered the reception, Katie and BJ had put on Mickey and Minnie Mouse Ear Hats; his were formal black and hers were white with a wedding veil.

The couple’s traditional first dance included “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in a ballad like rendition from the TV show “Glee,” while the cake cutting took place to the tune “Be Our Guest” from Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.”

As for the father-daughter dance, Katie and I gracefully slid across the floor until we stopped the music and belted out a few one-liners from our favorite Broadway show tunes.

I presented the couple with a one-of- a- kind Broadway-themed gift—a poster autographed by the entire cast of the National Touring production of “Fiddler on the Roof,” with a note of good wishes to the couple. I was able to get this through Birdie Newman Katz, from Augusta, who played the matchmaker, Yente, in the touring production and who graciously sent the poster while on the multi-city tour.

In the weeks following the wedding, guests continue to comment on the uniqueness of the Nadeau wedding.

“There’s no way to describe what took place,” said Katie’s uncle, Dick Boucher, from Manchester, New Hampshire. His daughter, Donna Boucher St. Cyr agreed by saying, “It was the most entertaining wedding any of us have ever attended.”

Katie and BJ agree … and they hope to have many more memorable events in their lives together.

Copy the Story Link