01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, August 24, 2003

Julie Brown and John Duponte Jr.

Country Gardens Bed and Breakfast, Rehoboth

6.22.03

Or should we say Treasure Island, Las Vegas? That's where Julie Brown and John Duponte were actually married: on April 24, aboard the H.M.S. Britannia, exchanging vows before the ship's captain. Today's reception in Rehoboth is a repeat performance, for the friends and family who couldn't be present for the real thing at the mega theme hotel.

"The wedding was elegant, actually," says Julie. "You know, with Las Vegas, you think cheesy, kitsch, but it wasn't. They had the gangplank decorated, and a pirate swept down from the perch with our rings."

Walking through the casino at Treasure Island to get to the ship, people were shouting out 'congratulations' and 'good luck,' she says. Someone shouted 'don't do it,' and another said something that sounded like 'sucker!'

"The morning of, John and I had breakfast with my parents, then I went to have my three services done, included with our package: hair updo, makeup, and manicure. John was a little jittery already at breakfast, I could tell, so he went and gambled.

"Then, after the ceremony we walked along the strip -- yes, in my wedding dress -- and took pictures all along the way. The whole gang of us went, attracting quite a bit of attention."

John's parents have been going to Las Vegas every year for the past few years, and over the summer John and Julie decided to go with them. Julie started researching the trip, and looked up some of the wedding chapels. "Vegas has so many fun ways to get married! So I decided that if by Christmas John didn't ask me to marry him, I would ask him. I knew that John was the one for me, and since I didn't want a conventional wedding, thought this would be a fun way to go.

"Christmas came, and John was shocked when I proposed, since the year before, when he mentioned it, I cringed at the thought!"

So on Christmas morning, John called his mother and said: "We decided to get married while we're in Vegas." The party quickly expanded from 6 to 16. Julie and John, both 27, met while attending the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay, where the school mascot is the buccaneer pirate. They were in the same unit, lived next door to each other, and both majored in Marine Safety and Environmental Protection, so were often in the same classes. After two years, Julie decided not to return to the Academy, and went to Rhode Island College instead. John graduated from MMA.

Julie kept in touch with several friends from the school, and would occasionally see John, but it wasn't until after he graduated that they started to hang out together. Another year passed before they started to date. A year later, they got an apartment together, and two years later, they bought a house in Cranston, which they now share with two rabbits and a dog.

Today, on a cool rainy day in Rehoboth, next to the seating assignments -- each table is named for a Vegas casino -- there's a large photo album, documenting the wedding as well as the rest of their week-long stay In Las Vegas. On one page, John poses with John Wayne at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, and Julie poses with Nicolas Cage: beside it is written, "the only man I'd leave John for!"