Wish Upon A Wedding is a nonprofit organization that grants weddings and vow renewals to couples facing serious illness and life-altering circumstances.
At the end of 2019, the organization granted its 50th wedding to an Indianapolis couple, Chris and Vanessa Blake.
Last year, just a week before Christmas, Greenwood residents Vanessa and Chris Blake renewed their marriage vows at the downtown Indianapolis Artsgarden.
Chris and Vanessa on the day of their vow renewal. (Seth Tacket,WFIU/WTIU News)
To anyone passing by, the wedding festivities and preparations looked typical for a couple on their wedding day.
But the celebration is bittersweet. Vanessa has ALS, and she and Chris decided to renew their vows with Wish Upon a Wedding because of their circumstances.
Vanessa says one of the most special parts of the day was sharing it with her daughter.
“This was a moment of a lifetime that I got to share with the love of my life and the other love of my life, which is my daughter,” she said.
In the midst of all the pomp and circumstance of the ceremony, a painter sits towards the back, capturing Chris and Vanessa’s moment on canvas.
Vanessa says this is just one example of how Wish Upon a Wedding took care to personalize the wedding for her and Chris. The organization interviewed the couple about their hobbies and passions so they could be incorporated into the wedding details.
Before being diagnosed with ALS, Vanessa was an avid painter.
“I told them that I loved to paint. It was something that when I was stressed or sad or going through a rough time that always brought me comfort," she said. "They listened to how that was important to my life and they added that element in the gift of a painting.”
Vanessa in her home, sharing paintings she has done. (Seth Tackett, WFIU/WTIU News)
Vanessa says she likes the painting because it captures the love felt that day from family and friends who attended the wedding, and it does not focus on her being sick.
“When we got this back, she most definitely hit every important detail. It will forever immortalize that moment for us.”
As Vanessa reflects back on the day, she’s glad they did the ceremony when they did, because just four days after the ceremony, she was hospitalized.
She says if the ceremony were held any later, she wouldn’t have been able to walk down the aisle to for the vow renewal.
Since the initial interview, Vanessa’s husband says her condition remain similar but she is progressively losing mobility.
Chris and Vanessa's wedding was the last one Wish Upon A Wedding put on before the pandemic.
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