NEWARK, Del. (AP) - Tray Nichols was a family man without a family.
His friends always said how kind he was and how he would make a great father. But it just never worked out for him in the traditional way.
“I was a 47-year-old bachelor, for the most part,” he said. “I’d never really seriously dated, had been content with being single, so it really just wasn’t something I was looking for or thinking about.”
Until he met Deanna and Zoe Pedicone.
In December 2016, Deanna adopted Zoe in an unconventional ceremony in Wilmington. The Newark woman loved “Star Wars” and was excited that her new daughter, 4 at the time, was also a fan of the science fiction movies and franchise.
So much so, in fact, that when her mom asked who she wanted to come to the legalization of her adoption, Zoe said she wanted the notorious Sith Lord himself, Darth Vader.
Once the judge agreed to the quirky request, Deanna reached out to Garrison Carida, a regional “Star Wars” costuming and fan organization run and led by volunteers.
At the time, Tray Nichols was the Delaware coordinator. In pictures and in video, Nichols can be seen in the background opening doors for Chewbacca and stormtroopers to enter the courtroom. He and Deanna worked together to get everything right for Zoe’s adoption.
But it wasn’t until Zoe’s birthday a couple of months after the adoption that things changed for the pair.
Deanna and Nichols once again worked together to get those who came to Zoe’s adoption to also attend her party, and when they went to lunch to plan, Deanna thought to herself, “He’s cute.”
For Zoe’s fifth birthday, Nichols got the girl a set of tiny golden “Star Wars” books. He had arranged them in order of the movies, an attention to detail Deanna noticed right away.
After the party, the two became Facebook friends but neither made a move. Finally, Deanna took Zoe to a comic book convention that the “Star Wars” group was at and hinted heavily to Nichols that he should ask her out.
“Pretty much stopped all communication for the next hour and a half, having to call my girl friend and be like, ‘Look, I need to know, is she actually telling me I’m supposed to be asking her out?’” Nichols recalled.
His female friend said yes, that was exactly what he should do.
The pair’s first date was April 1, 2017, and since then, they’ve created a galaxy’s worth of beautiful memories with Zoe and their three dogs.
Zoe, however, was perhaps the most excited about the new addition to their budding family.
After their first date, Zoe asked Nichols if he was going to marry her mom in a very pointed, 5-year-old way.
“I was like ‘Whoa. Let me go out on a second date first,’” Nichols said.
But she persisted.
“Before I asked my dad to be my dad, way before we even known him, I kept on wanting a dad because I didn’t have one yet,” the now-8-year-old said.
In mid-May, Zoe asked Nichols to be her dad formally over dinner – he said yes. Although he and Deanna had been dating only for a short time, he and Zoe had that commitment to each other, and he took it very seriously.
Nichols and Zoe are incredibly close, Deanna said. And although she and Nichols love “Star Wars,” it has now become an even bigger shared activity between father and daughter.
Nichols, the perpetual family man with no family, had found his.
‘OK, well there you are’
From there, it was like everything else just fell into place. A self-described Renaissance man, he was used to picking up odd jobs. Right around when he began dating Deanna, he found a permanent job building custom stairs and rails for homes.
A year and a half later, he asked Deanna to marry him. He had planned a larger public proposal during her 50th birthday party in August 2018. But when it came time, he realized it would be better to do it in private.
He pulled her aside at the party and asked her, and she immediately said yes.
“I knew I was going to marry him probably within the first few months of our dating,” Deanna said. “We often joke that when we met each other, it was just like, ‘OK, well there you are.’”
Back inside the party during his happy birthday speech, the guests – many of whom knew he was going to pop the question that night – were waiting for him to get down on one knee.
But to their confused faces, he didn’t and instead passed the mic off to Deanna, who told the gathered group, “And he just asked me to marry him and I said, ‘Yes!’”
Their friends erupted in applause.
“He has an attention to detail that is very nerdy and that I like,” she said. “He makes life easier.”
As for Zoe, her dad also has “really beautiful eyes” that she’s a big fan of.
“That’s what he tries to bat at me when he knows that I’m frustrated or something,” Deanna chimed in.
Their gentle natures complemented each other, and Deanna loved that no matter the issue, Nichols would work until he found a solution. If she wanted more light in a room in the house, he would quickly figure out how to add it before she even thought too hard about it.
“What I love about her is how much she cares. She truly has a caring heart,” Nichols said. “I think that the way that she cares about stuff is just bigger than anything else.”
LIGHTSABERS, COSTUMES AND LOVE
Many of those birthday party attendees were present for the couple’s big day on Oct. 10.
Their invitations from Lead Graffiti, run by Nichols’ parents, featured a custom message written by Zoe that read “Zoe Elia Pedicone Cordially invites you to the wedding of her mommy & daddy.”
Outside a friend’s house in Middletown, Deanna wore a white dress from David’s Bridal with sheer capped sleeves and a flower overlay that cinched in the middle. A slight hoop skirt bottom rounded out the dress. And tucked amid her half-up brown, curly hair, she wore a jeweled crown headpiece, with many loose curls wisping about when she laughed during the ceremony.
Nichols, who admitted he cried during the ceremony, started the day off in a traditional gray suit from the Men’s Warehouse.
Zoe served as one of their bridesmaids in a deep-navy dress that fell just above her knees from Eshakti. Many of Nichols’ friends from Garrison Carida were also part of the wedding party.
Following the ceremony – and true to form – the couple had a blowout “Star Wars” reception in a big tent on the property.
By the end of the night, Nichols was dressed as a stormtrooper and took his place by his wedding party, who had replaced their gray suits with Rey, Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca and Darth Vader costumes. The wedding gift to his groomsmen and women were stormtrooper helmets.
Their custom cake by Deanna’s niece Marie Hong featured a Millennium Falcon, and the topper was a clear silhouette of Han Solo and Princess Leia with their famous “I love you” and “I know” etched next to them.
As it got darker, amid the dancing and merriment, duels were had with about 50 lightsabers purchased specifically for the wedding.
Deanna stayed in her white gown but was all smiles as she danced with her stormtrooper husband. Nichols and Zoe also had sweet moments together as he lifted her close for a father-daughter dance.
It took a perfect storm for them to get there, the family says.
Deanne and Zoe didn’t find each other until Deanna was in her 40s. And Zoe was supposed to be adopted the August before, but paperwork delayed everything until December. That’s what prompted the new mom to ask her new daughter if she wanted Santa Claus or someone else to come to her adoption.
“I’m glad she didn’t ask for Santa Claus because then where would we be?” Deanne said.
Nichols and Deanne went on a honeymoon to Universal Studios.
And while they are very happy with their tiny family, they are also in the process of recertifying as a foster home so they can grow their family.
“By the end of the month, there might be another person in the house,” Deanne said.
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