It marked the first time I had ever been part of a media event in which I was not one of the media. Thus, I received a small taste of what it feels like to be on the other side.

The occasion was the wedding of my only daughter, Jennifer, to Doy Nichols. Under most circumstances, the marriage between two people who are not the least bit famous will generate zero attention from the news media. But my daughter’s wedding attracted reporters from the Associated Press, the major news channels and just about every newspaper in New York City. My daughter and her new husband even did a live interview on Fox News.

That’s what happens when you get married in a public restroom on Times Square in New York City with the bride wearing a wedding gown made out of Charmin bathroom tissue. It was the toilet paper dress and the wedding’s location that turned the wedding of two ordinary people into a media event.

My role was minor. Like every adoring father, I was given the opportunity to walk my daughter down the aisle, but most fathers of the bride do not have dozens of television and newspaper cameras recording that short walk. It was a bit unsettling.

As one might expect from a dress made out of toilet paper, my daughter’s beautiful wedding gown was a bit fragile. (No, it was real fragile; she couldn’t even sit in it.) Thus, just seconds before the wedding was to begin, Hannah Kim, the designer of the dress, and another woman were making some last-second repairs with transparent tape. Being a well-known klutz, my greatest fear was that I would step on the hem of her dress and accidentally rip it off of her while the cameras recorded it all.

Although the media played up the fact that the wedding was in a public restroom, the Charmin restrooms are not your typical public restrooms. Charmin has rented a storefront on Broadway where it has placed 20 individual bathroom stalls, some featuring Ultra-Soft Charmin and others featuring Ultra-Strong Charmin. Upon entering the store, you ride up an escalator and stand in line until a restroom becomes available. Meanwhile, a go-go dancer, the Charmin bears and others keep you entertained. Afterward, you are given the chance to vote for either Ultra-Soft or Ultra-Strong. An electronic “Flush-a-Meter” on the wall records the vote for each state and nation. (Kentucky is an Ultra-Soft state, but Ohio is Ultra-Strong.)

There is one area selling shirts, but this is not a money-maker for Charmin. It is simply an advertising promotion that already had attracted more than 800,000 visitors.

That it is quite popular is not the least bit surprising. One of the first things you discover upon visiting the Broadway theater district is there is a severe shortage of public restrooms. All the restaurants have large signs stating that their restrooms are for customers only, and the two restrooms I did use in restaurants (I was a paying customer) were both uni-sex with just one commode. That’s why the Charmin restrooms (which opened on the day the actor who portrayed Mr. Whipple died) are all the rage.

My daughter entered the contest to be the Charmin bride on a lark. She found the entry form on the Internet and wrote the required essay explaining how she and her husband-to-be met. A few weeks later, she found out she was a finalist and then the winner. The catch was the wedding was only three weeks from the day she learned she was the winning bride.

Doy and Jennifer had planned to marry on March 1, 2008. In fact, she had reserved South Ashland United Methodist Church for that day. But the free trip to New York City and the chance to wear a truly unique wedding gown was too much to resist. She accepted.

While Charmin did pay for Doy and Jennifer to fly to New York and treated them royally while there, it was up to my wife and I to see that we and Jennifer’s 12-year-old daughter were present for the event. Thus, granddaughter Aryssa knew several weeks in advance what Pepaw was getting her for Christmas: A trip to New York City.

While in the city, Aryssa, Lynda and I saw the Rockettes in their Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall, took several bus tours of the city and Aryssa went ice skating at Rockefeller Center. We also went to Macy’s, where we saw the beautifully decorated windows. Just walking into the nine-story department store was like stepping back into 1955 for me. It reminded me of the large Lazarus store in downtown Columbus (now closed) that I loved to visit as a child. We didn’t buy a thing at Macy’s except lunch, but it was wonderful.

My friends and co-workers have told me that I was on Fox News, on Lexington TV and on several other channels, but I missed all of that. However, as soon as the wedding was over, the Charmin people told us that it already was on the Internet. Thus, after Doy and Jennifer had concluded their interview with Fox that afternoon, the five of us — Doy, Jennifer, Aryssa, my wife and I — went to our hotel to take a peek at the Internet.

Now nothing is free in New York City except the Charmin restrooms (which were closed during the wedding). At the hotel, Internet access was $8 for 30 minutes. The lady at the hotel asked if all of us were planning to use the same computer.

“Yes,” my daughter said. “I just got married and they told us the wedding was on the Internet.”

The woman pointed her finger at Jennifer and exclaimed, “You’re the toilet paper bride!”

The hotel not only gave us free access to the Internet, but every woman who worked in the office took turns looking at the photos from the wedding. Then the hotel brought in a bottle of champagne, some chicken wings, chicken strips, chocolate-covered strawberries and other goodies. It was quite a celebration. (It was also my dinner. It’s expensive to eat in New York City!)

All in all, the wedding was an Andy Warhol moment in my daughter’s life, but I think her fame may have lasted a bit longer than 15 minutes. At last count, there were well over a 100 Web sites talking about the wedding.

But that was on Wednesday. On Thursday, both the bride and the father of the bride were back at work. Because neither Doy nor Jennifer had worked at their jobs long enough to earn a vacation, the honeymoon they won from Charmin was delayed. On Saturday, Doy was back in the cab of his 18-wheeler and he agreed to work on Christmas in order to get time off for the wedding.

One negative side of this media event is that friends and family members were unable to attend. Thus, Doy and Jennifer plan to go ahead and have some sort of ceremony on March 1 followed by a reception. That will give their friends a chance to share in their joy.

It also will enable them to repeat their vows before God. The Rev. Debra Romano (www.RentaReverend.com), who officiated at the bathroom wedding, conducted a nice service that was only as religious as Charmin would allow. The mother and father of the bride would like something a little more holy.

I genuinely like Doy and welcome him to the family. Theirs was not the wedding I would have planned for them, but it definitely was memorable. May Jennifer and her Prince Charmin have many, many good memories in their lives.

JOHN CANNON can be reached at jcannon@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2649.