No, you don’t have to bring a gift. Just be there for the “Mamma Mia” singalong movie showing Saturday night. As reported here last week, 64-year-old Melodie Anderson and 60-year-old John Babcock are getting married onstage at The Admiral at 7:30 Saturday night, right before the movie, as the culmination of a love story that’s stretched across 18 years and two states, starting as an off-and-on involvement following their meeting at a holistic-health-practitioner school in San Diego, then intensifying when John followed Melodie to Seattle, where she had moved to be closer to her grandchildren. Admiral entertainment director Dinah Brein-McClellan and her team hatched the idea of an onstage wedding to go with the romantic theme of “Mamma Mia,” put out the call for interested couples, and really fell in love with John and Melodie’s story, which took a dramatic turn two years ago, as Dinah relates:

In 2007, Melodie discovered she had cancer and through it all, John never left her side. “You really see what someone is made of when you go through something like that – bald head, throwing up, he was there for me.”

The experience made the couple realize that life is precious and short and they were ready to ‘seal the deal.’ The couple got a marriage license, but due to the recession and some financial losses on properties they owned they were forced to put a wedding on hold and soon the license lapsed. When Melodie told John about the offer that the Admiral had on the table, he was a bit dubious. “Melodie is really spontaneous, unorthodox and outgoing, very different from me but that’s why I love her,” he said.

To celebrate John and Melodie’s wedding, so far, The Admiral is providing a nondenominational minister, Coffee to a Tea with Sugar is donating a wedding cake plus 200 mini-cupcakes for the audience, Cafe Revo is giving the wedding party a celebration dinner for 4, and an anonymous donor is offering a stay at a Lake Chelan vacation home. (Got anything to add? Dinah’s still looking for someone who can contribute wedding decorations and flowers – dinah@admiralentertainment.com) You can be part of the fun (and sing your heart out afterward) just by going to Mamma Mia! Saturday night, 7:30 pm, $8/ticket, available online at Brown Paper Tickets.