Celebration of Love: Wendy and Larry Lewis

Nov. 15, 2004 -- -- Love is in the air this week as "Good Morning America" celebrates the power of commitment. We'll bring you stories about husbands and wives who long to reaffirm their love by renewing their marriage vows.

Larry and Wendy Lewis are one of the 125 couples you'll meet who plan to walk down the aisle together again.

Their union had the most humble of beginnings -- but after 23 years of marriage, they are still crazy about each other.

Larry Lewis was a 20 year-old Army recruit when he proposed to his sweetheart, Wendy Quigley, who was 17 at the time.

They were wildly in love, but money was tight -- so they put aside their dreams of a big wedding for a while and decided to get married no matter what.

Wendy wore a homemade blue corduroy dress when she and her husband-to-be headed to the local courthouse while family and friends waited at home.

"We go to walk up the steps of the courthouse and realize there's no cars parked around and we look at each other and we're like, 'Oh my gosh it's closed, what were we thinking?' So we put our rings on, went back to my sister's house, and pretended that we were married," Wendy, 40, said on ABC News' "Good Morning America."

Two days later, the couple was legally wed. And now, more than two decades and three children later, they will renew their vows in a ceremony they never could have dreamed of way back then

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"She wanted a huge wedding, and I was unable to do that and we got married by the Justice of the Peace," Larry said.

Larry, 43, now an Army commander in Iraq, says Wendy, who now lives at Ft. Hood in Texas, has been his rock over the years as his military career has often kept him from home.

"Any time you're separated from your spouse it's hard, but she has shown me so much commitment," Larry said.

After "GMA" and Bride's magazine heard their moving story, they decided it was time for Wendy to have the wedding dress she had always dreamed of. Designer Tomasina fashioned her unique dress and the sight of it brought tears to Wendy's eyes.