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SALT LAKE CITY — Pirates and cannons may not be typical wedding features, but they were the perfect setting for a Utah couple recently married on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in Disneyland.

Tory Elegante had always dreamed of getting married at Disneyland, so when his bride-to-be said a Disney wedding would be OK, he got to planning. He surprised her with packets containing different versions of wedding plans when he proposed at Lake Tahoe in July.

“I was just kind of along for the ride,” Nikki said. “He planned everything. I just showed up.”

Two minutes and 30 seconds into the ride and just after the second hill in Pirates of the Caribbean, Tory's friend from work performed the ceremony.

“It kind of quiets down there in the cave a little bit and he gave a two minute ceremony and we exchanged rings on the boat,” Tory said. “By the time we were to the big cannon ship battle, we were already married.”

Tory knew boats on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride could hold 18-24 people, so they told the operators they wanted a boat just for their family and friends. They weren't sure if Disney could know about the wedding since it was unofficial, so they made a secret seating chart with their parents and children close.

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Tory wore a tuxedo T-shirt and Nikki wore a Minnie Mouse T-shirt.

“Just getting to do that was like a dream come true, and I got to marry this beautiful, beautiful woman and now we get to have this life together forever and ever and we got to get married in Disneyland,” Tory said. “There’s no way I can describe any more perfection than that.”

Tory and Nikki's children, from previous marriages, said they loved the Disneyland wedding. Nikki said their oldest, 12, thanked them for not having a boring wedding and the others were excited as well.

“My 4-year-old, he tells everybody that now he has two dads and his new dad and mom got married on the Pirates ride because we’re a family of pirates,” she said.

They were married on Sept. 19, with the time on the invitation listed at 10:33 a.m. because the Pirates of the Caribbean ride is right by the exclusive Club 33 on 33 Royal Street, where they went to celebrate that night. They spent a couple of days in the park with their family before going on a honeymoon to Hawaii — and then returning to Disneyland to spend a couple more days there alone.

Tory is a huge Disney fan; the trip he got married on was probably his 58th or 59th time visiting the park, he said. Nikki is a more recent patron. She made her first trip with Tory when they were dating and has already been three times.

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“If I remember correctly, Pirates was the ride we rode over and over and over, so it makes sense that was the one we got married on,” Nikki said.

Tory's love of all things Disney are clearly evident in his life: his children are named Ariel, Belle and Orlando and even their cars have Disney-themed personalized license plates. The hallway of their house features ride attraction posters, 15 years' worth of pictures and a Pirates of the Caribbean corner with a bridge and water fountain. A miniature Monorail is upstairs and Mickey Mouse heads are stamped into the Sheetrock in the walls.

“It’s pretty crazy,” he said. “There should probably be a support group for me, I think.”

His fascination of Disney picked up when he was 15 years old and joined a friend and their parents on a trailer trip for his first visit to Disneyland. They stayed in the trailer park for a week and had free reign of the park, he said.

“That was that; I was in love ever since that point,” Tory said. “I decided I wanted to propose there or get married there; I wanted to make it everything and now it has become everything.”

Tory would take his children on day trips to Disneyland one at a time when they were little. He has held an annual pass since 1996 and his mom worked for Delta airlines, so the only cost of the day trip was the $20 to cover the shuttle, he said. The would fly out at around 8:30 a.m., spend eight hours in the park and come back.

Photo: Courtesy of Tory Elegante

“I’ve been in every month; there isn’t one month that lets me down,” he said.

Tory and Nikki met through Tory's sister, who is Nikki's best friend. She said she knew his children a year before she met him, and when they started dating they agreed it wouldn't be anything serious.

“Something kind of funny is that when we first met, in the first month or so of knowing each other, she realized I was LDS and she was a Baptist and she said ‘Just so you know, I’ll never join your church,’ and I said, ‘Just so you know, I’m never going to get married again,’ and then a little while on she became a member of the church and I became married to her,” he said. “It’s kind of ironic how it worked out.”

Tory and Nikki already have plans to go back to Disneyland for Christmas Eve.

“If we’re not at home, we’re usually in Disneyland,” Nikki said.

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