"This is usually where the 'awwwwwwws' start," Cynthia Miller says when describing her high school sweetheart John Dunn. The couple met when they were just 16 years old in musical theater class after school. John played football and Cynthia was on the dance team, and the couple attended their junior and senior prom together at Rogers High School.
    Cynthia and John attended different colleges and spent several years geographically apart - while Cynthia worked for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, John was living and working in North Carolina. When Cynthia took a job in Massachusetts, John was working for a domestic tanker company. "There were a few years when we were literally ships passing in the night," she says.
    For the marriage proposal, however, John brought Cynthia to one of their classic high school hangouts on December 24, 2006: the Castle Hill Lighthouse, where he popped the lid on a sapphire and diamond platinum ring. Cynthia later found out that the engagement ring was the same bauble she had commented on five years prior. "John kept the business card and would visit the store when he felt bold," Cynthia says.
    A hometown girl marrying a hometown boy, Cynthia, daughter of Jeff and Mary Miller of Newport, and John, son of John and Kathleen Dunn of Newport, decided to share their vows in the place that means the most to them: St. Joseph's Church on Broadway, Cynthia's childhood parish. The reception followed at the Commissioned Naval Officers Club: "You can't beat the view of the Narragansett Bay and the Pell Bridge," says Cynthia.
    Sailboats and sand were the themes of this Newporter wedding. The wedding "cake" was a replica of the Castle Hill Lighthouse, which was filled with cupcakes and included a red signal light. Two 10-foot tall blue flags marked the entrance to the reception on the decks overlooking the bay, and blue and white ice cube lights glowed from each guest's water glass.
    After trying on more than 80 gowns, Cynthia chose a satin, scoop neck, diamond-white gown with a blue sash, complemented by her grandmother's pearl, sapphire and diamond brooch. The groomsmen's attire provided the aesthetic twist. John is Irish and chose the traditional attire because, as Cynthia says, "he is more comfortable in a kilt than regular clothes." Each gentleman wore a Prince Charles jacket and solid saffron kilts, including flashers, sporran, skidoos and matching bow ties.
    Guests also enjoyed a special wedding margarita called "The Turbine Margarita," a blue cocktail named after the couple's yellow Labrador retriever, Turbine.
   The bridesmaids and Cynthia's four grandmothers received white feather boas to use as dancing props while the band played "All That Jazz." "Having our four grandmothers, all 80 years old and over, dancing with the boas was a treat," Cynthia says. The couple now lives in Newport.-RC