Wendy Dio (pictured below), the widow of legendary heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio (DIO, BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW, HEAVEN & HELL), married her boyfriend of the past two decades, Omar Gimenez, this past Sunday, September 9 in a private ceremony among family and friends in Montecito, California.

Wendy's good friend and maid of honor Gloria Butler — who is also the wife and manager of BLACK SABBATH bassist Geezer Butler — stated about the event: "I couldn't imagine, at my age, being part of a wedding party… never mind learning how to be a maid of honor. Well, not only did I manage to survive the entire ordeal… I thoroughly enjoyed being part of a truly wonderful event. In my next life; I'll surely be weddingologist. This is a new field that I've either invented or perfected… that being a wedding planner and psychologist all in one!

"The wedding was in Santa Barbara.

"I had been to one other wedding, not only in the same city, but the same venue. What a difference…. This one was full of beauty and love and happiness. The other was full of eggshells (that most of us walked on the entire evening), judgement, and dread.

"Being somebody that can't publicly speak terribly well and somebody that hates to read out loud, I managed to give a speech that was written only four hours prior to the wedding. According to my audience, I pulled it off really nicely and even got a good laugh (thank goodness — that was the intent).

"I wish Wendy and Omar a lifetime of love and happiness… The same love and happiness they showed their guests that night."

Gloria Butler and Wendy Dio are the chairman of the board and president/co-founder, respectively, of the the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund, a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable fund formed in honor of Ronnie James Dio, who lost his life to stomach cancer on May 16, 2010.