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A Port Moody couple said “I do” Sunday for the second time, almost a quarter of a century after they first walked the aisle together.

In those 25 years, the pair has seen, in the familiar words of the vows, good times and bad, sickness and health.

In front of about 50 emotional guests, Kim and Andrew Hopkins exchanged vows at a community centre in Vancouver’s Olympic Village Sunday evening.

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“There were a lot of tears, all around the room, but Kim and Andrew, they had huge smiles on their faces,” said Jennifer Greenman of A Wish to Wed, a non-profit society founded last year by a team of Vancouver-area wedding-industry professionals who volunteer their time and expertise to fulfil the wedding wishes of those who, like the bride, are facing terminal illness.

The room, decorated in silver and white, had hints of teal, the colour of ovarian cancer awareness. The couple’s daughters walked Andrew up the aisle. Then Kim, in a long white dress and holding a small bouquet of calla lilies, glided down to join him.

“Kim told me this morning, ‘It’s crazy but I’m nervous,’ a happy, giddy nervous,” recounted Greenman. “I told her if he still makes you nervous after all these years, it’s a beautiful thing.”

The couple’s story is reminiscent of the romance novel-turned-Hollywood flick The Notebook, said Greenman: “There’s love, tragedy, and even though your lives go through different paths, you know you’re meant for each other.”

Kim and Andrew first met in 1987. They fell in love, were married — for the first time — in 1991. They raised two daughters. Then they got divorced. After a few years apart, they reunited and got engaged again.

It was after that second proposal that Kim was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and everything changed.

Though they had wanted to have another wedding, Kim said, “life got in the way.” Between chemotherapy and everything else going on, devoting the time and mental energy of planning a big wedding was difficult.

That’s where Wish to Wed stepped in. It’s the first organization of its kind in Canada and it provided the wedding planning, as well as photography, makeup, catering, wardrobe and decorations. Greenman said: “We could not be happier to have granted Kim and Andrew’s wish and to have gone through this first time experience with them.”

The details of the wedding, Kim said, were “wondrous,” but her wedding day was about more than dresses and decorations.

“What better thing than a wedding to bring family and friends together? It’s all about love,” Kim said before the wedding. “When you have a wedding, you have those most important people in a room with you. And that’s why I really wanted to do it and why it was important to me.”

Next month, the couple might take a post-wedding trip together to San Diego, but it will depend on how Kim is feeling.

They have medical appointments next week, said Andrew, adding: “Ovarian cancer is very aggressive, so we need to keep on top of it to slow the progression.”

Asked what she’s learned between her first wedding and her second, Kim said: “You have one go in this life, live it each and everyday. Don’t put things off, do them now.”

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