Five siblings share their wedding day at the Mesa Arizona Temple

It’s a love story on a grand scale — five siblings marry in the temple on the same day and share their celebration.

Earlier this year the five Waldie siblings —ages 20-28 — were each dating a “special someone.” As the relationships progressed toward marriage, their dad suggested that if they were all going to get married soon, perhaps it would have to be a joint wedding and reception.

“Doug suggested it as a joke,” said mom Kristen Waldie. The Mormon family lives in Mesa, Ariz., in the Mesa Arizona Citrus Heights Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“Not a joke,” said dad Doug Waldie, “more of a necessity.”

The oldest sister, Emily, started off the chain of events by getting engaged at Disneyland to Will Allen on March 24. They had met after he had moved to Arizona from Utah for work.

Her sister, Sydney, had met and fell in love with Doug Schaub and they were engaged April 16. During their courtship they had a healthy dose of University of Arizona vs. Arizona State rivalry going until he finally proved to her he could let go of his U of A ties when he proposed in Sun Devil Stadium.

Then two of their brothers — Bradford and Walker — joined in when they each proposed to their sweethearts on April 21. Each brother claims he was the first. Bradford, who was attending school at Oxford, was in Prague when he asked Megan Turner to be his wife, so the time zones were on his side. Walker asked Jillian Alger on the same day in Arizona.

Walker said Bradford and Megan didn’t tell anyone for three days so it didn’t count.

“There’s a little bit of competition between us,” explained Bradford.

“I did it first, no matter what he says,” added Walker.

As the family began making plans for four weddings, it seemed to make sense to combine them into one big event.

Originally the family considered having separate weddings on different dates, said mom Kristen Waldie, but adds that with family members out of state and some out of the country, there was no way they would have the time or money to fly in for each other’s weddings and son Bradford would be reporting to pilot training at the end of August and wouldn’t be able to attend later ones.

Then sister Brooke and Todd Cook jumped in by becoming engaged June 12. She recalls warning Todd that if he proposed before the “mega wedding” then she would say no.

“I kept think­ing more and more about it and real­ized I needed to have my fam­ily at my wedding so later I told him we were going to have to join the big day,” Brooke said.

Although they met some resistance, the five siblings and their future spouses moved forward with making plans (in person and on Skype) to share their day on Aug. 10.

Megan’s family was planning a reception in Washington for a week after the wedding in Arizona.

“I considered that my fall-back reception,” she said. “So if I didn’t feel like I was getting my special day, well, then at least I had that.”

But she said the event went “better than I ever could have imagined.”

One by one the couples were married in the LDS Church's Mesa Arizona Temple; three back to back in the morning with a break for a luncheon and then two more in the afternoon.

“Our sealings were so individualized,” Megan said. “Then we got to sit back and watch the others; the power of unity and family was overwhelming. The event just showed us how important that is.”