Apr 17, 2019 3 min read

Margaret Maletta and Chris Cadez met while in high school and began dating eight years ago. He proposed on New Year’s Eve 2017 – which is also the eve of Margaret’s birthday. The couple took their time planning their wedding, which was the largest wedding that the Double Tree Pittsburgh Meadow Lands Hotel had ever hosted.

Margaret describes the event as, “A large Italian-Slovenian wedding with a little over 400 guests.”

The week leading up to the wedding was a bit stressful – blame Mother Nature.

“We had bad weather all week, but then the weather for the rehearsal and wedding day was wonderful,” says Chris.

The bride’s wedding dress was Allure Couture from Celestial Bride in Johnstown. “I looked like a little Italian princess!” Margaret says. The bridesmaids wore a combination of black dresses with red accents and sashes while the men donned black tuxedos from Men’s Wearhouse. The groom’s vest was white and the groomsmen wore red vests and bow ties.

Their reception boasted a unique feature. “We did an Italian style service,” says Margaret. “So each table had five to eight waiters and all of the food came out at one time. There was filet, salmon, chicken, wedding soup, pasta primavera … “

The reason behind that was the huge guest list of 400.

One big surprise came at the start of dinner service. “We wound up surprising them by playing ‘Be Our Guest’ from ‘Beauty & The Beast,’ and all of the servers came out of the doors and started serving,” Margaret says.

Bethel Bakery created the raspberry filled and orange creamsicle cake. During the reception, guests were dancing both to tunes spun by a DJ and live polka music provided by the Eddie Rodick Orchestra.

Two other musical moments also made sure there were some tears shed during the ceremony and reception. Margaret walked down the aisle to “Ave Maria,” which was her late grandfather’s favorite song. “We had a lot of tears,” she says. “I was good until the back of the church when all of my bridesmaids turned and looked at me.”

She also managed to surprise her mom with a real tearjerker. “My mom made a comment during wedding planning that everyone was getting to dance with me but her,” Margaret says. “But little did she know I had already planned a mother-daughter dance to the song ‘Mama’ by Carrie Underwood. We cried and laughed during the entire dance!”

The newlyweds now live in Strabane and did something different for a honeymoon. “We bought an RV instead,” says Margaret. “I grew up camping. We just did little trips around Pennsylvania for now.”

The Details

Dress: Allure Couture from Celestial Bride, Johnstown

Bridesmaid dresses: Sorelle Bridal, Washington

Hair: Lisa Paris Salon, Canonsburg

Tuxedoes: Men’s Wearhouse

DJ: 2nd II None Productions

Videographer: JT Penderville

Polka band: Eddie Rodick Orchestra

First dance: “Perfect Symphony” by Ed Sheehan featuring Andrea Bocelli