Quirky ‘wedding photos’ attract attention
Eighteen-year-old Christine Wagner loves pizza so much, she married it.
The ceremony was an intimate affair, with Wagner wearing her grandmother’s white wedding gown and her “groom” decked out in pepperonis and a Pokemon bowtie.
The nuptials were documented in pictures and shared worldwide via social media.
Friends and strangers alike — including media outlets as far away as Australia and the Netherlands — have taken note of “the Pizza Girl.”
Wagner also answers proudly to Mrs. Pizza.
The senior at Liberty Union High School has been a lifelong fan of pizza, with a particular fondness for Cristy’s in Baltimore, Ohio.
She also happens to be “a very unique individual,” said her mother, Nichi Wagner. “She’s not afraid to speak her mind, and she embraces all her quirks.”
Which undoubtedly explains the Facebook photo
her daughter posted of herself trying on her grandmother’s wedding gown with the accompanying caption:
The post ended with several pizza emojis.
Canal Winchester photographer Marcy Harris, who had taken Wagner’s senior pictures in August, got a big kick out of the photo.
“It was so Christine,” said Harris, who then wanted to do a photo shoot of Wagner “eating pizza and loving the pizza like it’s your husband.”
“It was so funny and so ‘on brand’ for me,” Harris said.
Wagner, who enjoys cosplay (the practice of dressing up as pop-culture characters), readily played along.
“I told her, ‘If you are completely serious, I will be serious,’” Wagner said. “I thought, ‘This is going to be great.’”
The two had little trouble convincing Wagner’s mother or the original owner of the dress, Carlene Ayers — “She’s the coolest grandma ever,” Wagner said — to bless the idea, with one caveat: Keep the pizza sauce off the 50-yearold gown.
Harris took the photos on the family’s Baltimore property on the day of Christine’s winter formal. (She had already planned to have her hair and makeup done.)
And, thanks to the special requests made of Cristy’s — triangular slices, no sauce, pepperoni on top of cheese — the groom arrived camera-ready.
The weather was cold and damp, but Harris managed to capture the happy couple in a number of poses without leaving grease or mud on the dress.
With the shoot concluded, Harris, Wagner and her mother headed inside for a mini-”reception.”
The food? The groom, of course.
Harris posted her photos on Bored Panda, a website for sharing art, where it trended for more than a week. “The Today Show” in Australia and Metro, a British publication, eventually picked them up, and a Dutch magazine interviewed Wagner and Harris via Skype.
Although there have been some “online trolls,” Nichi Wagner said the overall response to the goofiness has been positive.
“Most have fallen into two camps: ‘This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen.’ Or: ‘I need to do this. This will be my next husband. Will you be my bridesmaid?’”
As a bonus, the owners of Cristy’s Pizza, after seeing the photos, gave Christine Wagner a free-pizza coupon.
She planned to save it for a “real date.”
—Nichi Wagner, on the reaction to her daughter’s photo shoot