Wedding gala becomes ball for broken hearts

ST. LOUIS -- Twenty-six-year-old Peter DeLuca slipped into his girlfriend's Florida home on Valentine's Day weekend, covered her floor in rose petals, went down to one knee and asked her to marry him.

Marilyn Chivetta, 32, said yes, and a June 13 wedding in St. Louis was set.

For the next nearly four months, Chivetta planned the perfect Italian wedding, one that would be the envy of brides everywhere.

The 400 guests would be overwhelmed with such customized mementos as toasting glasses, matchbooks, napkins, ribbon favors and rose seeds in bags with the couple's initials on them.

A week before the two were to exchange vows, the groom-to-be got cold feet.

Chivetta said DeLuca called her June 6 and told her he "couldn't handle all of it right now," she said.

Left with a perfectly planned wedding that included everything but a groom, Chivetta was crushed.

And Friday night's Broken Heart Ball was born.

The band already was paid for, and friends from as far away as Turkey were headed to town. So Chivetta decided to share what would have been her wedding night with acquaintances and strangers alike.

Suddenly, the worst day of her life was transformed into a chance to commiserate with all who have ever had their heart broken.

The event would begin at 6:13 p.m., the exact time the couple was to be married.

Chivetta still was holding out hope that DeLuca would reconsider and the wedding could be salvaged, but that apparently wasn't in the cards.

DeLuca, vice president of his family's plumbing business, is leaving Sunday on a 14-day Italian vacation. It's the trip he and Chivetta were to take after they became united as one.

Instead, he's taking another woman -- his mother.

"This whole thing is movie material," said Tony Viviano, the wedding singer who met the couple almost four months ago when they asked him to perform at the ceremony. "This belongs on Oprah Winfrey, or at least David Letterman."