GRAPEVINE, Texas — Army Staff Sgt. Paul Marler wasn't surprised to see his wife at the airport when he returned home from Iraq, but he certainly wasn't expecting her in a wedding dress.
Melissa Marler surprised her husband of five years with a vow-renewal ceremony right there at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Tuesday.
"Wow," he said after seeing Melissa after he got off the plane after a seven-month tour in Iraq.
Melissa, who admitting to being "nervous, scared," carried yellow roses and shed a few tears of joy. Her husband was wearing fatigues.
Airport officials provided a cake and a chaplain. The Grand Hyatt DFW offered the hotel's presidential suite for the night.
Melissa, 25, said she and her 28-year-old husband have spent just one other anniversary together. The other times he was on duty in Cuba, Korea and Bosnia.
The couple, of Killeen, wed on July 15, 2001.