The stage is set. The wedding party sits at the head table, resplendent in costumes of white lace, black wool and lavender satin.

The script is memorized. After all, weddings are orchestrated events.

And like a Broadway show, there is the cast: the stars and co-stars with their own intricate plots.

Spotlight on the groom: He’s missing his own college graduation today. His last exam was four days ago.

Cut to the bride: She’s been in the Army reserve since high school and is in management training at her bank. She and the groom just bought their first house.

The parents of the bride are losing one daughter to marriage, another to college. Their eldest just gave birth to their first grandchild.

The groom’s parents just watched their last unmarried child say “I do.”

Weddings happen all the time. Backstage, real people have lives to live during the months leading to the Big Day.

Scene 1: The dance

A dark nightclub in D.C., February 1999.

Music blares. Strobe lights flash. A disco ball circles overhead. A group of college kids hang out together.

David Graham has known Paula Askins for a year, but they’re just friends. Then they dance. They kiss. Everything changes.

“It was like everything stopped. I didn’t know I was going to marry her, but I knew she was just special. She wasn’t just another chick,” David says.

“It was all over with,” Paula sighs. “It was fireworks. It was like, ‘He’s the one for me.’”

Scene 2: The beach walk

Summertime in Myrtle Beach, August 1999.

It’s after dark. Paula just returned from five weeks of ROTC camp. She is joining David and her parents for vacation.

She thinks something’s up when her parents excuse themselves and David invites her to walk with him along the beach.

“While I’m sitting there telling him how happy I am and how much I love him, he’s playing with his shorts,” Paula says with a giggle.

All of a sudden, David untangles a diamond ring from the cord inside his shorts.

“He just got down on his knee. I was like, ‘Whoa!’ I said, ‘Yes, yes, yes!’ before he even finished the sentence.”

Right at that moment, someone set off fireworks over the water.

“It was like in a movie,” Paula says.