77-year-old has her dream wedding — with a twist

What started as an event to make her pals laugh turned into something special for Dorothy “Dottie” Fideli. On May 13, the 77-year-old “married” herself in front of family and friends at the O’Bannon Terrace Retirement Community in Goshen, Ohio.

She told Today she came up with the idea because “I do some crazy things around here just to make people laugh. When I see them all down in the dumps, I go get one of my outfits on and dress up and come down, and they smile.” Fideli’s daughter, Donna Pennington, bought her mom a dress, made food, and put up decorations for the ceremony, and while it was originally for her friends and neighbors, Fideli realized that it was really her dream come true.

When she married her ex-husband in 1965, they did not have the formal wedding she wanted, Fideli said, and for her daughter to make it happen decades later was “the best thing” ever.