Feb 15, 2007 - 08:25:24 CST
A customer had tears in her eyes at a McDonald's restaurant Wednesday morning. And she wasn't the only one:There appeared to be a mildly emotional employee, as well as two wet-eyed women standing not far from the soft-drink machine.How could they not?
It was all so perfect: The place smelled of freshly brewed coffee; the Egg McMuffins were at their peak of perfection, the grill's alarm was going off periodically when sausage and eggs were done, customers coming in and out, ordering - and Lori Heiberg and Craig Sager were getting married in front of the fireplace.
At 8:35 a.m. Wednesday, in a place typically, exclusively, an eatery at 150 W. Bismarck Expressway, a ceremony began.
A Mandan couple was about to make some long-term promises. The Rev. Paul Schauer, of Wilton's Sunne Lutheran Church, was officiating in his vestments in front of a blazing fireplace.
The couple in formal dress faced Schauer under an arch, not golden. It was a white arch, made pretty in white chiffon and attached flowers. Around them were bouquets of balloons, other decorations.
And behind them was their table.
Schauer told the couple - and their wedding crowd of about 20, as well as McDonald's employees and customers who lingered to listen - that this was an odd, but a special place to do this. He understood the place had meaning for them, and getting married in a meaningful place was important.
In this beautiful burger place.
For the first year of dating, after meeting through the Internet in 2004, they ate there at that same table every Tuesday for lunch. Employees expected them, knew their order: Happy Meal for her; Big Mac for him.
That ended when Sager got a new job with the railroad and was sent out of town for days to travel with a welding crew.
But last year for Valentine's Day, Heiberg got employees to help her decorate their table and told Sager to meet her there. Pictures were taken, more memories made.
Then, things got serious.
After the couple became engaged in September 2006, they were mulling over possible wedding locations, something small and informal for what would be the second marriage for both.
Sager suggested they get married at McDonald's, just joking. But she jumped on the idea, for sentimental reasons. He responded there was no way he was getting married at McDonald's.
But Heiberg, who shed a few tears, wanted it so much.
So there they were Wednesday morning. Family members and friends gathered. Early comers had time to order a breakfast.
"It doesn't seem so bad now that we're here,"said Ciera Moran, 20, one of Heiberg's three children, who couldn't quite believe for a while that this was where their mom wanted to get married.
McDonald's gave away free coffee and juice, and the couple got a $20 Arch Card from McDonald's for a wedding gift.
"I thought it was a cool idea,"said Dana Bryan, a McDonald's manager who OK'd the couple's request to marry there.
Coffee drinker Don Fryer, 70, of Bismarck, a morning McDonald's regular for years, had a good seat and view for the nuptials. He was quite sure he'd never seen a wedding there before. "It might liven the place up a bit."
Customers got to chew their fast food to the classical strains of Pachelbel's Canon in D coming out Sager's sound system. And they got some religion.
There were passages from the Bible, wedding vows, a group recitation of the "Lord's Prayer," "Our Father who art in Heaven ..." And the grand moment when the rings were on, and secure, and the bride yelped, "Yes, it's a deal!"
The groom, a singing talent who usually sings for other people's weddings, serenaded his bride: "I want to make your world better than it's ever been ..."
Mr. and Mrs. then planned to go home after the about 11-minute event and spend the day staining woodwork in the family room.
Money saved by having a small wedding and no honeymoon will go to buy trees.
The couple owns 8 acres outside of Mandan where they've already planted 470 trees and want to plant more and then someday build a home there.
Heiberg, now Sager, is a social worker, but went to school originally for horticulture.
"I dreamed of working with plants," she said about her childhood in Grand Forks. She remembers when she was a child that she'd put coats and mittens on the trees near her home to keep them warm.
Sager said he was attracted to her because she's outdoorsy and has a loving spirit. It's not unusual for her to grab the top of saplings planted on their property and give them a kiss. And Heiberg says she has had a long relationship with an old tree near a Mandan golf course. She always gives it a hug and tells the tree it's doing a good job, she said and laughed.
As for her other relationship, she said it was way back at the beginning of that relationship when she realized he was "the one."
It was when Sager, a former state singing champ while a high schooler in Devils Lake, sang to her on the phone.
"It was like someone whispered in my ear, 'He's the one,'" she remembers.
They hadn't even met in person at that point.
But that was many Happy Meals ago.
(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at virginia.grantier@bismarcktribune.com.)
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