Love was in the air —along with the distinct aroma of White Castle sliders.
It was wedding day on Valentine’s Day for two White Castle lovers, tying the knot at a Fordham White Castle franchise after winning a citywide radio contest.
“It’s an awesome feeling,” said Bianca Palanza just after slipping a real ring —not an onion ring —on her new wife Danielle Rivera of Parkchester. “Now I know we’ll be together. We’ve got no choice!”
Com-patty-ble
The sweethearts won the right to wed at White Castle after winning a contest run by NYC pop radio station Z100. In a meaty feat of shameless promotion, the fast-food chain paired with local stations to host weddings around the nation.
Bronx’s E. Fordham Road White Castle closed for the entire afternoon Feb. 14. Inside, the wedding was about as strange as one could expect from a ceremony at a fast-food joint.
After spending the morning on air with Z100 host Elvis Duran, the love pair rolled up to the White Castle in a limo just after 1 p.m.
Rivera, wearing a sparkling white dress and Ugg winter boots, strolled down the linoleum-tiled aisle while Palanza waited, decked out in a lime green vest. Family members sipped Jumbo-size sodas as they watched on.
An ordained minister, and Z100 radio emcee on the side, “Greg T.” ran the pair through their vows as news cameras rolled. In the corner, a wedding cake built of nearly 100 stacked-up (burp!) mini burgers awaited the newlyweds.
Hungry for love
But in many ways the fast-food affair was just like any American wedding. Rivera and Palanza shared a first kiss and a slow dance as music mingled with the sound of potatoes frying in oil.
Family members making toasts to the new couple had tears in their eyes —and not just from the onions being sliced in the kitchen.
The pair had put off planning their wedding after Palanza proposed on the edge of Manhattan’s Intrepid Museum back in August. They promised each other that they’d jump at the chance to get hitched if they won the contest.
“We kept delaying it and delaying it, and we said if we win, we’ve gotta do it,” Rivera said.
The duo had plans to party on through the day and night. But first, there were more important tasks to deal with.
“I’m hungry,” Rivera told a reporter as White Castle servers set out trays of fries, burgers, onion rings and chicken fingers. “I may have to cut this interview short.”
