LOVELAND, Colo.—After Army Sgt. Travis Vendela was wounded in Iraq and lost his legs, the community came together to give the soldier and his fiancee, Tiffany Black, a free $30,000 wedding in Loveland.
This week, the Wyoming couple’s May “fairytale wedding” will be shared with the nation when it’s featured on “Miracle Weddings” on the Discovery Health channel.
“It’s a story that deserves to be told,” said Lorie Cooper, formerly of Fountains of Loveland, who helped coordinate the event, along with her husband, Kevin, a wedding officiant with Marry Me in Colorado.
Vendela lost his legs and suffered a broken pelvis, a broken arm and a fractured vertebra in his neck when an improvised explosive device struck his Humvee on Feb. 7, 2006. Before the accident, he had planned to marry Black in March 2007, but the wedding had to be postponed.
The Montel Williams show got word of the couple’s story, and its producers contacted the Coopers to help put together a wedding for them.
Lorie and Kevin were able to rally 20 Northern Colorado businesses to assist with the wedding.
“Everybody just pulled together and did an awesome job,” she said.
Lorie also contacted producers at the Discovery Channel, who decided to send out a crew to film the couple’s wedding.
On May 24, with cameras rolling, Vendela and Black were married in their dream wedding at The Fountains of Loveland.
“The wedding was phenomenal,” Lorie said. “It was absolutely beautiful. It was fairytale.”
This week, their story will be shown as one of two featured on the “Miracle Weddings” TV show, which chronicles inspiring stories of love.
The hourlong show first aired Wednesday on the Discovery Health cable channel. It also will be on Thursday at 12 a.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m. Mountain time, the channel’s Web site says.
———
Information from: Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald,
