Lubbock native says 'I do' on national TV
July 16, 2009
The vows have been spoken, the first dance is over, the bouquet has been tossed.
Lubbock native Leigh Daniel is now Mrs. Cordes.
She and her husband, Nick, married Wednesday morning under the gaze of about six million people. The couple, former track stars who now coach the sport at Ohio's Ashland University, won a vineyard-themed wedding courtesy of NBC's "Today" show special, "TODAY Throws a Wedding."
"It was magical," said Daniel's mother, Jan Tilley. "She really did look like a fairy tale princess, and it's been a wonderful day."
Tilley of San Antonio was one of about 180 guests who attended the couple's wedding at the Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, N.Y.
Daniel, 30, a former record-breaking Texas Tech long-distance runner who graduated from Monterey High School, and Cordes, 29, a former track standout at Ashland, met six years ago at an Olympic training camp. They dated secretly for a year before they were kicked out of the program because participants were forbidden to date each other.