Pharaoh's to make Mardi Gras history on Saturday with 'fairy tale' wedding during ball tableau

Mobile Mardi Gras societies, and ruling associations, have been crowning kings and queens for more than a century, and doing so in the most lavish fashions imaginable. But for the first time in known Carnival history, a man and woman will be united in matrimony during a society tableau.
On Saturday night, after the Pharaoh's 30th parade through the streets of Mobile, Pharaoh XXX - otherwise known as "King Dan" - will marry his fiancée, and this year's Queen of the Nile, Sonja Lomax McGraw. Their wedding, which is thematically based on Verdi's opera "Aida," will be the crescendo of the evening's festivities.
In an interview with the Press-Register/AL.com, the soon-to-be newlyweds said their wedding was originally intended to have a Medievil theme, and be held at the Saenger Theater. But serendipity reigned, and two years after becoming engaged at a Pharaoh's luau, the society that has been King Dan's home for 17 years will provide the framework for their nuptials.
"Being an event coordinator, I can't just walk down the aisle," Dan said. "There are expectations."
The king said his events business - a "one-stop shop (that can do) everything except flowers and food - keeps him out of town on almost every holiday, so Mardi Gras was a perfect home for their wedding. The "blended" family includes four children, all of whom will participate in Saturday's wedding, he said.
"Being an event coordinator, I can't just walk down the aisle," King Dan said. "There are expectations.""To be the first monarchs to get married, I'm ecstatic," Dan said. "It has become very, very theatrical.
"I wanted to go over the top with just about everything."
The wedding will include the entrance of family members to their own signature songs, and the rings being delivered in an ark by the society president, he said. Presentation of the bride by her father, as well as the traditional dances after the ceremony will be included, as well.
"Sonya and I have designed everything around it, it's still Mardi Gras, but we've thrown these wedding innuendos in there too," Dan said.
Considering who is officiating the ceremony, there's no doubt about the wedding's ties to Carnival. Uniting Dan and Sonja will be Rev. Wayne Dean, who is celebrating his own 30th anniversary this year, as Chief Slacabamorinico. "Ol' Slac," one of his Merry Widows and the claret-clad Mistresses will participate in the wedding, Dan said.
"In every aspect of the wedding, we want it to be Carnival," he said.
For Sonja, having such a unique ceremony brings a dream to reality that started when she was a little girl, watching the royal wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles.
"This is what I've always dreamed of, and even bigger," McCraw said. "Every little girl wants to have a fairy tell wedding.
"Well, this is a fairy tale."
She said she wouldn't be surprised if other mystic couples rush to follow the Pharaohs' lead during future Carnivals, which puts even more pressure on the originals.

"We know that people are going to make it bigger, time and time again, but we really want ours to be the benchmark for it," McGraw said.