Tricia Harling and Royal Lancaster began as pals when their paths crossed on Larimer Square. After Lancaster returned from Iraq, however, the relationship shifted.
Meet. They met in September 2002, if that’s what you can call running into each other at various Denver hot spots again and again. “I finally got up the guts to talk to her,” Lancaster says, and the official hanging-out period began and stretched for two years.
But when both got back together with ex’s, the fun ended. “There were probably four, five, six months that we didn’t talk,” Harling explains. “We’d see each other out, but we didn’t really hang out anymore.”
Match. As a member of the Colorado Air National Guard, Lancaster often gets deployed around the world for a month or a few at a time. After returning from one such stint in Iraq, Lancaster immediately called Harling. “He’d just gotten off the plane, and I was the first person he called to say he was home,” she says. “It was from then on that I was able to get out of my bad relationship because he helped me get up the guts to actually do it.”
Harling and Lancaster both regretted the time apart and realized right away they were in love. “We just looked at each other and knew this is what we wanted,” Harling says.
Marry. Lancaster carried around an engagement ring for weeks when Harling’s friends goaded him into proposing one night in June 2005 at LoDo’s Bar & Grill. He dropped to one knee, but before he could propose, an incredulous and slightly disappointed Harling asked, “At LoDo’s?”
She said, “Yes,” but Lancaster admits it wasn’t his most shining romantic moment.
They wanted a typical wedding a year later in June 2006. Just days after getting engaged, though, they learned they were expecting a baby. So rather than plan a wedding, Harling and Lancaster became parents.
There was no time to plan a regular wedding. So, with money tight, the two avid sports fans decided on a decidedly non-traditional wedding at the ballpark and a BBQ reception two days later in his parent’s backyard.
The ceremony took place in Section 156, below the score- board, at Coors Field before a Friday night game between the Rockies and Marlins.
As the ceremony began, ABBA’s “Take a Chance on Me” blared from the loudspeakers. Players took batting practice on the field below. Fellow fans wandered by, stopping to watch. Some stray balls banged into the stands left and right. The bride, dressed in a white, eyelet sundress and flip-flops, glanced around nervously, but the bridegroom proved his steady devotion by looking only at her.
Not a tie in sight, friends and family gathered in nearby bleachers to witness the wedding, which included a baby blessing for their 3-month-old son Tanner and expressions of gratitude to their parents, especially now that the young couple are parents themselves.
“May your dreams come true,” said the Rev. Maureen Schmidt. “And, when they don’t, may new dreams arise.”
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