Four Seasons wedding
<p>Josh and Stephanie MacKay share their first kiss as married husband and wife under the gazebo outside Four Seasons Memory Care in Coeur d'Alene on Thursday afternoon.</p>
<p>Don Ziegler, center, one of the residents of Four Seasons Memory Care in Coeur d'Alene, gives a teary-eyed hug to Stephanie MacKay, right, a caregiver following her marriage to Senior Airman Josh MacKay in the Four Seasons lawn on Thursday afternoon.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - The wedding seemed more storybook than impromptu, but it was both.
The glass beads and sequins on Stephanie Roadifer's borrowed gown sparkled Thursday in the brilliant sunshine as she walked across a path of pink rose petals to the gazebo on the grounds of The Four Seasons Assisted Living Community at the corner of Dalton Avenue and Fourth Street.
Senior Airman Josh MacKay, in U.S. Air Force dress blues, smiled as he watched his betrothed step past several dozen wedding guests, many of them residents of Four Seasons, where Stephanie has worked as a caregiver for nearly two years.
The ribbons, bows, flowers, taffeta, minister, music and wedding cake were provided by Stephanie's Four Seasons co-workers.
"We were trying to figure out if we were going to the Hitching Post or whatnot, and Mary Ann, our activities lady came out and said, 'Why don't we do it here?'" Stephanie said. "It was amazing that they'd do something so extraordinary for us."
The employees planned the marriage event in three days, after learning that the pair of 23-year-olds were thinking about a courthouse wedding before the end of the week when they will move to Omaha, Neb., where Josh is stationed.
Stephanie's nephews Isaac, 4, and Elisha, 3, were the ring bearers, and walked down the aisle with their mom, Stephanie's older sister, Mellisa Clemons.
Clemons was impressed and surprised by Stephanie's co-workers speed and efforts.
"She just handed me a dress and said, 'You're a bridesmaid,'" Clemons said.
When Josh and Stephanie emerged from the gazebo as Mr. and Mrs. MacKay, women blew bubbles into the air around them and music by Uncle Kracker floated across the lawn from a portable CD player, "You make me smile like the sun, fall out of bed. Sing like bird, dizzy in my head ..."
With wheelchairs and walkers, Four Seasons residents marched slowly past the couple and stopped to hug the smiling bride.
"It's not like a hospital, where they're in and out. You get really attached and you fall in love with all the residents. I'm going to miss them," Stephanie said.
"It was fun for the staff to pull together for this. It was fun for the residents to attend the wedding," said Lori Varbero, the business office coordinator. "It's a happy occasion. Most times we have funerals here, you know, we lose someone and we do celebrate life then, but this way we're celebrating the beginning of two lives together."
Josh said having their wedding at Four Seasons was particularly special because Stephanie is leaving her family and her work to share his life.
The pair attended Lake City High School together and have been friends for roughly nine years. They fell in love during the last few years.
Josh, a telecommunications officer at the Air Force weather agency for the past six months, has been in the military for nearly five years. He spent three years in Germany working on satellite communication, all the while maintaining contact with Stephanie.
"She knew before we got together, and before we talked about it, how important the military is to me, and how I want to make a career out of it," Josh said. "Having her on board means a lot and it shows her dedication, as a spouse, to the military. It's a hard life. The fact that she's willing to do it means a lot."