All My Children's 10 Most Memorable Weddings

High school sweethearts Jenny Gardner (Kim Delaney) and Greg Nelson (Laurence Lau) survived blackmail, a bomb scare, and temporary paralysis to wed in a serene ceremony in 1984. But the wedding shoot was anything but calm: "I couldn't eat," Delaney told PEOPLE at the time. "It's like a real wedding!"

Call it seventh heaven: The 1993 wedding of Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) and Dimitri Marick (Michael Nader) – whose tempestuous relationship make up Kane's seventh and eighth trips down the aisle – was one of Lucci's favorites. "We did a traditional ceremony with lots and lots of candles," Lucci told PEOPLE of the lavish Russian Orthodox nuptials. "It was very beautiful."

After a strong fan campaign that lasted more than a decade, a miraculously resurrected Jesse Hubbard (Darnell Williams) remarried longtime love Angie Baxter (Debbi Morgan) in 2008. The couple's nuptials also included a cameo from R&B crooner Ne-Yo, who sang his song "Stop This World" as the couple exchanged vows.

After a traumatic first wedding, bad-girl-gone-good Hayley Vaughan (Kelly Ripa) formally wed Mateo Santos (Mark Consuelos) in 2000. The event imitated life for Ripa and Consuelos, who eloped off-screen in 1996. "I think [Kelly] might get a little nostalgic or maybe regret the fact that she didn't get to have that big wedding," Consuelos said. "But I quickly point out to her that we had a number of weddings."

The 1980 union of AMC supercouple Cliff Warner (Peter Bergman) and Nina Cortlandt (Taylor Miller) – their first of four marriages to each other – was one of the soap's most-watched and extravagantly produced weddings. "When we saw what they shot, it was amazing," Miller told PEOPLE of their nuptials, which was filmed over two days in New Canaan, Connecticut.

In the show's first and only gay wedding, Erica Kane's daughter Bianca Montgomery (Eden Riegel) exchanged vows with girlfriend Reese Williams (Tamara Braun) in 2009. While the marriage was annulled the next day, the union remains historic. "I stood up for the gay population," Riegel told PEOPLE.

The AMC cast traveled to a cathedral in New Jersey for the winter wedding of neurosurgeon Maria Santos (Eva La Rue) and journalist/millionaire Edmund Grey (John Callahan) in 1994. "We drove up in a horse-drawn carriage," La Rue told PEOPLE. "Luckily, it was like 65º outside. It was gorgeous." The onscreen nuptials served as a test run for La Rue and the late Callahan, who married in real-life in 1996. They divorced in 2005.

Supercouple Dixie Cooney (Cady McClain) and Tad Martin (Michael E. Knight) scored another chance at love at their second wedding in 1994 – shortly after Tad recovered from amnesia. Though their happiness was short-lived (the marriage dissolved a few months later), Tad and Dixie's relationship is a cornerstone in AMC history. "Anyone who came after Dixie was measured against her," Knight told PEOPLE.

The 2001 wedding between Gillian Andrassy (Esta TerBlanche) and Ryan Lavery (Cameron Mathison) reunited the once-wed couple in an elaborate ceremony at AMC's token estate, Wildwind. Gillian died less than four months later, but her spirit returned to Ryan on several occasions to declare her love. "They were soulmates," TerBlanche told PEOPLE.

Perpetual couple-on-the-run Julia Santos (Sydney Penny) and Noah Keefer (Keith Hamilton Cobb) celebrated their Cinderella-themed wedding in 1996. Their union became a fan-favorite: "After Noah died, they tried pairing Sydney with others, but nothing took off," Hamilton Cobb told PEOPLE. "In the viewers' minds, we were an entity."