OGDEN — Kerry Miller followed a time-tested tradition by giving his daughter away during her wedding ceremony Friday.

But circumstances that are growing less unique as military involvement in the Middle East is prolonged led the family to find a unique way for Miller to fill his traditional role at the wedding.

Miller, a master sergeant with the Army Reserve's Salt Lake-based 191st Quartermaster Co., recently arrived at Camp Speicher in Iraq. His appearance at the wedding ceremony was live, via Web cam; and a life-sized photograph of him on a cardboard figure known as a "flat daddy" stood in the reception line.

The unfortunate conflict between the timing of Miller's deployment and the wedding got Miller thinking. "The wedding's been planned for a year, so it's not like we could reschedule it," his wife, Robin, said.

"He's been a public affairs officer. He was in Kosovo in 2001. We've been discussing ways to keep him a part of the ceremony without asking for time off because he's only been there for a week," Robin said.

So at 1:30 a.m. local time in Iraq, the master sergeant's father-in-law carried a laptop as he walked bride Kristen Miller down the aisle at the wedding ceremony in Utah with dad's live image on the computer screen. Dad did his part, then watched the rest of the ceremony via the Web cam.

"It's been fun trying to figure out how everything was going to work," said the bride. "We were pretty sure everything would work as long as the Internet feed worked."

The bride said her new husband, Dustin Avan Lyon, helped brainstorm the high-tech connection. "He actually wanted to be able to do more," she said, suggesting the "flat daddy" be mounted atop a radio-controlled car and driven down the aisle, "instead of having grandpa walk me down the aisle," Kristen said. "I thought that was a little 'out there.' People are already going to think I'm crazy for having the cardboard cutout there."

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