01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, October 10, 2004

Linda Succi and John Higginbotham

Alpine Country Club, Cranston

7.25.04

The wedding invitation is a CD, a "Flash" presentation cordially inviting you to the wedding of Linda Succi and John Higginbotham. The schedule of events lists a full eight hours of celebratory fare:

12:00 The Ceremony

12:45 Brunch

2:00 Entertainment

3:00 Cocktail Hour

4:00 Dinner and Dancing 'til 8:00

The electronic invitation goes on: "Yes it does work. We met online." Through Yahoo! Personals, John found Linda's profile, noticed that she was online at that moment, and instant-messaged her. They messaged back and forth for about 15 minutes. He told her he would love to hear her voice, and she said "Why don't you call me?"

Five days later -- this was mid-October 2003 -- they agreed to meet at Borders in Cranston. "A neutral place," says Linda. From there, Linda suggested going to the opening of Hi-Hat, a new jazz club in Providence, and when they got downtown, they discovered that WaterFire was in progress.

"That night was magical," says John,"the walk along the river, the haunting music, the surreal glow. I clearly remember looking at this beautiful woman on my arm, saying to myself, 'This is the one.' I was in love with Linda Succi from that moment. I loved her energy. She was a little more cautious."

"I was more cautious because I knew the man I fell in love with had to fall in love with two women: me and Gabriella," Linda said. Gabriella is Linda's 13-year-old daughter with special needs. But John had no reservations about Gabriella. When John was younger -- "I was short and fat" -- his father drove a school bus for special-needs children. "They were much kinder to me than other children and I never forgot that."

Until this fall, Linda was the vice principal at Martin Middle School, in East Providence. Now, she is the principal at Emma G. Whiteknact Elementary School, also in East Providence. She's a competitive ballroom dancer. She acts, sings and dances with local theater companies. And she has been a city councilwoman in Cranston. "I had to marry a younger man so that he could keep up with me," she says. Linda is 54. John is 50.

John Higginbotham teaches anatomy, physiology and pharmacology at the Career Education Institute, in Lincoln, training people to become medical assistants. He also continues to work at his family's business as a medical laboratory technician.

Today, at Alpine Country Club, it's an unconventional wedding for this unconventional couple. John's teenage sons, Brian and Dennis, and Linda's stepson, Louis, are the groomsmen. Gabriella, and Maria Dino, for 15 years Linda's father's partner until his death last year, serve as the bride's attendants.

After a buffet brunch, the guests are led into the main ballroom. The "entertainment" begins, with Barry and Nelia Lawton, professional dancers and instructors, performing the samba. Another couple demonstrates a waltz, followed by a pianist, complete with a Liberace-style candelabra on the piano. The soloist who sang "Ave Maria" at the ceremony serenades Gabriella in the center of the ballroom with Gabriella's favorite song, from the show Thoroughly Modern Millie: "Gimme Gimme That Thing Called Love."