Md. Fire Truck Bride Honors Dad on Her Special Day
Source The Capital (Annapolis, MD)
After almost 25 years in the Annapolis Fire Department, Stan Newquist is used to racing around town in an emergency. But a call he answered last month was personal -- he had to get his daughter to the church on time for her wedding.
Amanda Newquist -- now Amanda Janeski -- was seen riding in the back of a shiny 1962 fire truck with her dad at the wheel and her small tuxedo-clad ring bearer and flower attendant by her side. The vintage engine belonged to John Hammond, chief administrative officer for Anne Arundel County.
"I was concerned about the white dress, so we laid a quilt down on the floor of the hose bed," said Newquist, a lieutenant at the Taylor Avenue station. For an extra something borrowed, the bride wore her father's firefighter's collar pin on her wedding dress.
"She always wanted her daddy to take her on the fire truck," said her mother, Aimee Newquist.
The bride was picked up at the O'Callaghan Hotel on West Street and delivered to St. Mary's Church on Duke of Gloucester Street in time for the 1 p.m. ceremony. Along the route, her dad pulled a cord to clang the big chrome bell on the front bumper.
"Everybody on the street was waving and beeping their horn all the way down. It was like a one man parade," Newquist said.
For Amanda, the ride was a fitting way to kick off her big day. "For me it was really important because I wanted to honor my dad on such a girly day. The fire department is like my family," she said.
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