Like everything else on a soap opera, it all starts with the script. "In the script," explains Guiding Light costume designer Suzanne Schwarzer about Danny and Michelle's Spanish-influenced wedding. "Carmen says to Michelle that she wants her future daughter-in-law to wear her gown, which originally was Carmen's mother-in-law's gown. Carmen is such a traditionalist and very conservative to begin with, I had to pick something that looked timeless."

Trying to create the right look, particularly when reflecting someone's ethnic heritage, isn't always an easy task. "I went to Paula Varcelona's shop and explained that I had a Spanish wedding," she recalls. "One of her seamstresses is Spanish and showed me a magazine cover of a duchess to a bullfighter. It was the most beautiful wedding dress I had ever seen. The people were magnificent. They were elegant and the women were wearing six-inch combs draped with lace mantillas. The bride wore a beautiful antique ivory-lace mantilla and the men wore morning attire. That wedding was so splendid that I decided to model this wedding after that one."

It was no secret that Carmen didn't exactly welcome Michelle into the family. The fact that she wore a black mantilla does not signify her disapproval or mourning. "It was not unusual for these women to show up to the wedding dressed in beautiful suits with black veils or mantillas," Schwarzer explain. "It was not a sign of disrespect. I thought it was a striking combination. I thought it made her look more dramatic."