When Doyle Weingardt offered his three daughters a position in the family business, he never thought it would come to this: Driving down Interstate 15 toward Las Vegas with three gowns and a pickup full of wedding paraphernalia.
But here he is, looking forward to Saturday when he’ll take three walks down the Victoria’s Wedding Chapel aisle: First with Amanda, his youngest at 25; then Lindy, who is 28; and finally with Christy, 30.
Call it three weddings and one big happy family.
Doyle needed help running Triple A Brand Meat Co. in Burlington, the family’s hometown. The firm provides food to about 35 zoos and animal sanctuaries nationwide.
“I honestly didn’t think any of them would come back,” he says. They were city girls. Each had graduated from Regis University and was living her own life.
Christy was a nurse in Chicago. Amanda was an office manager in Washington state. Lindy was in Lakewood, working at a credit union. Each was in a relationship.
Christy and her boyfriend, Russell Lindenschmidt, “talked about it for five straight days,” she says. “But it was a chance worth taking.”
“Her dad convinced me,” says Britt Thew, who had been dating Amanda for about three years.
Soon they were all in Burlington, each couple in their own home, living within a quarter-mile of each other, and working together at Triple A.
“It took a little bit of adjustment since it was a different type of career, and it was weird at first, seeing my sisters and their boyfriends all the time, but we’ve always been really close,” Christy says.
It wasn’t long before Russ proposed to Christy in November 2005. Then, the next month, on bended knee on Christmas Eve, Britt asked Amanda to marry him. In January, the third couple, Jeffrey Yager and Lindy, were engaged.
Wouldn’t it be fun, the girls joked as they talked wedding plans, if they all got married at once? Then someone – Britt takes credit – suggested Las Vegas as the place. Suddenly jest had become reality.
One might think three women with different personalities planning one wedding could start World War III. But the arrangements were made without much tension.
Each sister chose her own dress, but they did shop with their mother. There was one glitch: When mom Mary Pat attempted to pay for the third dress, the credit-card company declined the charge. “No one buys three wedding dresses,” Doyle explains.
And few people have triple weddings. It’s never happened before at Victoria’s, says wedding coordinator Brittany Hunkin, who helped plan the Weingardts’ event.
After a standard ceremony at the chapel, they’ll head to a reception complete with fireworks and a montage of family photos. Each daughter will dance with Dad and each will have her own three-tiered wedding cake.
Doyle and Mary Pat still have a few days before the happy event. After they drop off the dresses to be pressed, they’ll set up a hostess suite for guests and maybe visit a few casinos.
They may want to place their bets on lucky No. 3.
Staff writer Cynthia Pasquale can be reached at 303-820-1722 or cpasquale@denverpost.com.
