In the end, it came down, as usual, to him, her and a judge. Only this time, Canadian pairs figure skaters David Pelletier and Jamie Sale—who were awarded gold medals at the 2002 Olympics after it was revealed their second-place finish was a result of vote-rigging didn't have to wait long for the verdict. After a 15-minute ceremony on Dec. 30 at the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel in Alberta, Canada, during which 115 family members and friends held candles as Pelletier, 31, and Sale, 28, exchanged personal vows, the judge a decidedly partial family pal—pronounced the couple husband and wife. Sale, who began dating Pelletier a year after they started skating together in 1998, admits she was “both excited and nervous” to speak her vows; as a surprise to her French-speaking Quebecois groom, Sale told him “that I love his smile, how he laughs, and that he's my soulmate” in his native tongue. “It was,” says Pelletier, “very emotional for me.”

Before a dinner featuring smoked trout, sushi and maple sugar pie, the two, who went back to work on the Smucker's Stars on Ice tour a week after the wedding, took their first dance to Shania Twain's “From This Moment.” After the night of dancing ended at 12:30 a.m., says Sale, “We were like, ‘It's over already?’” Nah, just beginning. Sale, for one, loves the new feeling she gets every time she looks at Pelletier. As she says: “Wow. That's my husband.”