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(Enlarge) Donna and John Warner renewed their wedding vows July 11, 2009, at the Tabernacle at Emory Grove, in Glyndon. They were surprised that every single member of the wedding party 35 years ago was able to participate in this month's ceremony. Donna was diagnosed with cancer three years ago. (Staff photo by Sarah Nix)

If you had the chance to do it all over again, would you? Could you?

"I may as well," said John Warner when wife Donna Ensor Warner asked him to marry her again. "I've already invested 35 years." The Finksburg couple renewed their wedding vows July 11 at the outdoor Tabernacle at Emory Grove, in Glyndon, where both were born on the same block of Chatsworth Avenue.

Although the site has certainly hosted its share of weddings through the years, this was the very first vow-renewal ceremony there, said Charlene Jones, an Emory Grove volunteer in charge of religious activities.

The Warners had a special reason for renewing their vows. In 2006, Donna was diagnosed with Stage III ovarian cancer.

After two surgeries, she's on chemotherapy two weeks out of every three. But she's still here.

"We hadn't done anything for our 25th anniversary, and now as a cancer survivor almost three years out, I think it's time to celebrate that, too," she said.

So on the guest list of people important in their lives now, in addition to relatives and friends and folks from the Gamber Fire Station where they've both volunteered for years, were Donna's nurses, oncologist and surgeon. Most of them attended to share in the celebration.

Gang is all here

Just like the couple's commitment, some things in the ceremony remained the same as they were 35 years ago.

Remarkably, everyone in the Warner original wedding party of 13 was available to participate again, including the two flower girls who are now in their 40s and the 39-year-old ring bearer who towers over many of the others.

Bridesmaid Teresa McCarley Halter, a friend of Donna's since the two were teenage hospital roommates, wore the charm she received as a member-of-the-wedding-party-gift to the second ceremony.

Thinking back to the original festivities, "I remember being intrigued by the whiskey sour fountain at the reception," she recalled. And she loved Donna's bridal gown with its long train so much that she borrowed it for her own wedding two years later, when Donna served as her matron of honor. That original headpiece and wedding gown, blinged up with added Swarovski crystal beads and only slightly altered with a new neckline, was worn again by the bride, now 56, at the vow renewal and reception.

But little else was the same the second time around.

Making changes

The ceremony wasn't held in Glyndon Methodist Church, where the couple, then in their early 20s, first married. This time around, Donna wanted the event casual, so they opted for the tabernacle setting at Emory Grove, nestled in the old community across Butler Road.

To suit the July holiday theme, women in the bridal party were asked to wear summery red-white-and-blue, the men red polo shirts and navy pants. The 57-year-old groom donned a tuxedo shirt and tie with dress pants and the couple's three sons wore red-white-and-blue plaid.

Mitchell and Gregory Warner, 32 and 24 respectively, escorted their mother down the aisle while 28-year-old Timothy Warner, not a minister but whose long hair, said his mom, "makes him look like Jesus Christ," performed the ceremony.

Mitchell, an information tech professional, and his wife, Christie, delighted family and guests with a PowerPoint presentation. It began with photos of "mom and her sister in little white dresses with curly hair and buck teeth, and dad in a striped shirt and something that looks like a diaper," and continued through about 300 shots of their separate and then conjoined lives.

Mitchell was also responsible for the wedding and reception music, for which the guests of honor weren't much help. Their first "first dance" selection had been "The Hawaiian Wedding Song," and Donna hasn't a clue why they chose it, nor did she have any suggestions for their second "first dance" melody.

"I'd asked dad what to use; he'd say, 'I keep asking mother, but she says, "We'll just do it on the fly,' " Mitchell said. But he wasn't completely lost in a musical wilderness; "Dad grew up on country and rock 'n' roll, and, luckily, I was raised on that, too."

In the end, his folks made the choice after all, selecting "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?"

Others contributed in their own ways. John's cousins ordered the invitations, Donna's sister got the cake, her friend played the organ, and his friend shot the photos.

At their first ceremony, "Most of our close friends were in the wedding party," Donna said. But leafing through 35-year-old photos, she saw a lot of people she and John didn't know. The strangers were friends and associates of their parents. This time around, she said, it was a chance to celebrate with their own crowd and the people important to them.

Donna's parents, Arthur and Myrtle Ensor have passed away, but her 96-year-old Aunt Marie, who missed the 1974 wedding, attended this time, and John's parents Jim and Maxine Warner came from Virginia.

Although no bridal bouquets or garters were thrown, the very same cans which had been tied to the getaway car's bumpers were used to support candles at the reception. Sometimes, Donna said of all the original wedding paraphernalia she saved, it's good to be a pack rat.

It started with a blind date

The couple met on a blind date when, at age 15, Donna's twin Debbie (now Myers) was asked out by a friend of John's. The Ensor sisters were not allowed to date solo before age 16, so Debbie's date asked John to take Donna along. She knew he was The One by his senior prom the next spring but, she recalls,

"It was five years before he finally agreed with me."

Although their families were all in Glyndon and Reisterstown, the Ensors moved to Finksburg when the twins were still babies. Donna and John went to different colleges.

"I doubt if our paths would have crossed if it had not been for that blind date," she said.

user comments (2)

user lscollison says...

Congratulations to my stalwart classmate and her steadfast husband. Thanks for showing us how it's done. Best wishes!

Posted 12:40 AM, 07.20.09

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user megpyron says...

Yeah! I'm proud to know a couple with the understanding of word commitment. God bless you!

Posted 5:24 PM, 07.24.09

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