Fairytale from New York
This couple’s dream Disney wedding ended up as part of a reality TV show
W HEN Dominique and Joe Ranola tied the knot last year, it was in front of family, friends and, ultimately, the whole nation. The New York twosome were selected from thousands of couples to have their wedding televised for Freeform network’s TV special, “Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings: Holiday Magic.”
It was a dream come true for Dominique, whose happily ever-after fantasy began as a kid. Growing up in New Jersey in a large, tightknit Italian family, “Disney was such a huge part of my childhood,” she says. “My parents honeymooned there, and we visited twice a year. I was a princess girl — obsessed with them,” she says.
During one trip at age 4, Dominique recalls being on the monorail en route to the Magic Kingdom when the conductor pointed out a couple who were tying the knot.
“I saw this bride come out in Cinderella’s coach. I thought she was Cinderella. I told my dad, ‘I’m going to get married there,’ ” she says.
Dominique eventually met Joe, her Prince Charming, in 2012. Joe, then an NYPD officer-in-training, grew to appreciate Dominique and her family’s love for Disney. They spent “movie nights” watching Disney films, and after Dominique completed her master’s degree in education and Joe finished his training, their families vacationed at Disney to celebrate.
While there, “Dominique and I saw the Wedding Pavilion. Seeing her glow like that — knowing how happy she was — I knew this was where we’d have our wedding,” says Joe, who popped the question at a Manhattan restaurant in Columbus Circle, overlooking Central Park.
“We took a horse and carriage to the Plaza Hotel, where Joe surprised me again with our families waiting on the front steps,” says Dominique. “They had a ‘She Said Yes’ sign, and we celebrated all night.”
With a November 2017 event date planned, Dominique swiftly called Disney to reserve a venue. Just as the invitations were ready to be mailed, she spotted on Facebook an opportunity to be cast on the “Fairy Tale Weddings” show.
“I thought, ‘This can’t be real,’ but I applied, and a week later we were interviewed by a casting director,” says Dominique.
As for why she thinks she and Joe were cast? “Our save-the-date cards pictured us in Mickey and Minnie ears, and me in a Cinderella cupcake dress and glass slippers. When the television crew interviewed us at my family home, Mickeys were everywhere. We weren’t trying to show ourselves off. We wanted to show my family, and how we are with Disney,” says Dominique.
While nervous about having an on-screen wedding, Joe says, “I thought about what an incredible experience it would be. Who else could say their wedding was shown on TV? I can’t wait to tell our kids about it and watch it with them.”
For Disney’s wedding planners, getting to know the couple was key.
“We focused on their style, hopes and wishes so that their wedding was reflective of them,” says Korri McFann, marketing director of Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings & Honeymoons.
Ultimately, the Ranolas’ Winter Wonderland wedding theme proved “beyond expectations,” says Dominique. It was, “Bigger, more special and elaborate. I love the colors of winter. There were glistening trees, snowflakes and more sparkle than I could have imagined. The castle had icicles.”
Driving to the ceremony with her parents in the Cinderella coach she saw as a youngster, “my father and I were hysterical,” says Dominique. “It was very emotional.”
And although Dominique’s grandmother had passed away a month before the wedding, “walking down the steps, being announced as husband and wife, I felt like that Italian princess she had always called me,” says Dominique.
To watch their love story air, “We had a viewing party at our house, with two big-screen TVs,” says Dominique. “The emotion they captured on Joe’s, my mom’s, and my face as I walked down the aisle was spectacular.”
A new six-episode series of “Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings” is coming to Freeform in the summer.