What made my wedding great

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IT WASN'T NECESSARILY THE GOWN, the tux, flowers, the location or the canapes. For many couples, what made their weddings great centered on the joy of love found and sharing their special day with family and friends.

Some of the couples featured here wed in intimate settings, while others jumped the broom in large multigenerational celebrations with everyone from grandma to flower girls dancing the "electric slide" at the reception. Whether it was a celebratory balloon release or the release of butterflies to honor departed loved ones. for these couples, the moments that made their wedding great often centered on family.

mr & mrs Laila Ali Curtis Conway

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"Having my father [boxing legend Muhammad Ali] there to walk me down the aisle made it a very special moment," says Laila Ali, who married retired NFL star Curtis Conway in a family-oriented wedding in Marina del Rey, Calif. Guests included the bride's mother, Veronica Porsche Anderson, among the 200 friends and family who feted the couple. The bride was resplendent in a silk charmeuse strapless mermaid gown by designer Amy Michelson. Curtis' twin sons were ring bearers and his daughter was a flower girl. The bride's sister Hana was in the bridal party. The bride, whose fancy footwork has made her a boxing champ and also a dancing champ as a finalist on TVs Dancing With The Stars, showed she also has vocal chops by serenading her surprised groom with a love song. According to published reports, her rendition of Oleta Adams' "Never Knew Love" really rocked the house. The couple met several years ago at a friend's party. They exchanged vows last July in the rose garden of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Marina del Rey, Calif. The Rev. Michael Beckwith of the Agape International Spiritual Center officiated.

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mr. & mrs Casey Cole Julian Hooker

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"The day was a great celebration of love and my dad [Nat King Cole]," says Casey Cole, who wed Chicago native and former NFL player Julian Hooker in Boca Raton, Fla., on March 17, which would have been Cole's 88th birthday. "As we say in our family, it was 'Unforgettable,'" she says. The bride's mother and Cole's widow, Mafia, attended, and Casey's recording artist sister Natalie Cole [both in photo at right] serenaded the newlyweds with "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know" as they shared their first dance together as husband and wife. The couple wed in an outdoor ceremony at the posh Boca Raton Resort & Club that was attended by 180 guests. The bride wore a latte-colored beaded silk gown by noted French designer Monique Lhuillier. Wyatt Cole Ray, 10, escorted his mother down the aisle, and the bride's twin sister, Timolin Cole Augustus, was the matron of honor.

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mr & mrs. Keri Farmer and Anthony Griffin

Anthony Griffin first met his sweetheart, Keri Farmer, in a most unusual location: standing in front of a bus stop, waiting to catch a campus shuttle for Houston's Rice University. "When I saw her, everything kind of just stood still, and I knew she was going to be the one," says Griffin, now a commercial real estate appraiser in Cleveland. "I know, it sounds kind of corny, but that's how it really happened." The two, both 29, met at the school and dated for eight years before getting married in September 2006 in Baltimore. Griffin says he popped the question by surprising Farmer in a swanky hotel suite with 12 roses--each with a note expressing one of 12 reasons he wanted to marry her. "When she read the last note and turned around, I was on one knee," Griffin says. Farmer, a pediatrician, loves children and made sure kids played a major role in their wedding, which included a wedding party of 35 and nine children as flower girls, ring bearers and junior bridesmaids and groomsmen.

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mr & mrs Adeyinka and Aaron Yarbrough

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What made Adeyinka and Aaron Yarbough's wedding day great was sharing the special day with family and friends, some of whom traveled to Dallas from Gambia and London. "Many of our [230] guests kicked off their shoes and had a really great time dancing and enjoying our celebration," says Aaron Yarbough, 35, an engineer for a software company in Frisco, Texas. Adeyinka, 33, a senior recruiter for a financial corporation, stills laughs when she recalls her husband retrieving the garter from her leg. "It was a memorable moment, but I was embarrassed a bit," she says. After the two met during a 2003 track and field event, Aaron proposed on the Eiffel Tower in Paris. "It was a complete surprise," says Adeyinka. "Very sweet and romantic. A day I will never forget." Says Aaron: "I fell in love with Adeyinka because of her warm, caring personality. She is beautiful, very outgoing, loves to travel and have a good time."