Fan Wedding Rehearsal

EVENT: Wedding Rehearsal Dinner

EVENT DATE: Thursday, August 16, 2007

EVENT PLACE: Finley’s Grill Room in Downers Grove, IL

EVENT COORDINATOR: Tom Schaefer (TK118)

MISSION REPORT WRITTEN BY: Cheryl Whitaker (TI-3127)

On May 25th, Michael and Donna M. happened to catch the guest appearance made by the MWG members on the WGN Morning Show. As a result, they came up with the idea to hire a few 501st members to come and “troop” at Michael’s son’s wedding rehearsal dinner. Michael’s son (Mike), Mike’s fiancée (Millie) and the Best Man (Chris) were HUGE Star Wars fans and they thought a surprise visit by some Imperials would be fantastic! Well, they were right. We were able to work it out and the rehearsal dinner was a great success!

Even though the event was going to be held on a Thursday evening, we were thankfully able to come up with three participating members: Tom Schaefer (TK-118 - Stormtrooper), Mike Olson (SL-3193 - Darth Vader) and myself (TI-3127 - TIE Pilot). Tom was the Coordinator for this event and Chris (Best Man) was his contact. At first we assumed that our “role” in all this was going to be to greet the guests at the restaurant after the actual wedding rehearsal. We were wrong. When Tom spoke with Chris a couple of days before the event, he told Tom that we were going to be surprise guests that wouldn’t “appear” until after all the guests were already seated in the party room. Well…that changed EVERYTHING! Now it was time to come up with a different plan to make an entrance with.

After some brainstorming and expanding on a great idea provided by Phyllis Schulte (Schph Gochi), a small skit was created. I went out and purchased some stationary that was “scroll-like” and some black ribbon, then went home and created a “Decree of Imprisonment” for the Groom. (There is a picture of the scroll/Decree within the picture link below)

We met up at Finley’s after work on Thursday around 5:00 pm and had to be ready to go by 6:00 because that’s when the guests were supposed to start showing up. Chris came back to meet us in our “dressing room” around 6:00 to go over any last minute plans. The only people that knew about us being there was the restaurant, Chris, and the Bride & Groom’s parents. This was going to be fun!

Approximately 6:15… The guests were all seated, Chris had Mike and Millie standing with him in front of everyone to make a toast to them….THEN the Imperial March began playing. We got several strange looks as we made our way through the back of the restaurant to the velvet curtain that separated the party room from everyone else. As we got closer to the curtain, the restaurant employees parted them and Tom and I went straight for the Groom, with Mike as Lord Vader close behind. Everyone in the room went wild! We instructed Mike to kneel on the floor with his hands behind his head, while Tom read the Decree of Imprisonment aloud to everyone. Once Tom was finished reading the scroll, Mike turned to kneel in front of Lord Vader and asked him for Millie’s hand in marriage. After Lord Vader gave it a little thought, he gave his approval and Mike was aloud to stand tall again.

The skit was a big hit, and the entire event was a great success! A very generous donation of $200.00 was given to Children’s Memorial Hospital for our appearance.


Once the skit was over we stayed for many, many pictures with Mike, Millie and their guests. They were all so appreciative and even offered to have us stay for dinner. After we changed out of our costumes, we did end up staying for another half-hour or so to chat with everyone, but politely declined the dinner invite.


Tom got the following e-mail from the Best Man the next morning:

I have just got the following email from the Groom's parents ......