Marvin “Marv” Litzau, 80, and Pam Crites, 69, are fixtures at the Black Bear Diner in Sequim.

Every day, the couple eats breakfast and dinner at the Sequim restaurant in the last two seats at the counter. They order something different every time, Pam said.

According to Marv, “It’s our second home.”

So it’s not much of a stretch that the couple chose to marry at the diner on April 16. Their best man and maid of honor were the restaurant’s resident bears, in costumes.

“It was a lot fun,” Pam said.

“I feel like I’m 19 again,” Marv said. “It was a really nice thing. We enjoyed it tremendously.”

Black Bear Diner general manager Shayna M. Mayen said Marv has been eating at the diner since it opened in July 2012 and calls him the “counter captain.”

“Marv is part of the staff,” Mayen said. “He lets me know what’s going on.”

Pam became a regular after she and Marv reconnected.

The couple has known each other for about 53 years since meeting off-base near Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty) in North Carolina, where Marv and Pam’s late-husband (then-boyfriend) were in the U.S. Army.

They stayed friends for many years, with the couples eventually losing touch.

Pam retired as a manger of a retail store, and Marv as an E-7 (Sergeant First Class) in the Army after 20 years, and then as a firefighter lieutenant for the Ashland City Fire Department in Tennessee.

Pam said they reconnected in recent years with help from her daughter, who found Marv’s adopted son on Facebook. They talked for a few years as friends, while Marv’s now-late wife battled Alzheimer’s.

Pam lost her husband of 50 years and was encouraged to take a vacation to decompress, so she came to the Sequim area.

“It’s the best thing I did,” Pam said. “We reconnected out here and he convinced me to move here in June 2023.

“In December, he asked me to marry him.”

Diner nuptials

When staff learned of Marv proposing, Pam said they were thrilled to help organize a wedding for them in the diner.

“We all just came together spectacularly and got it all ready for them,” Mayen said. “All of course because we love them.”

Pam said she and Marv filled out paperwork and staff took over.

Staff stayed late the night before the April 16 wedding to decorate.

Family, friends, staff and customers watched the couple celebrate their nuptials as it was broadcast live on Facebook, the Sequim diner’s owner Bret Wirta said.

Wirta said it’s the first wedding for the Sequim diner and possibly for the whole franchise.

Joining the couple were cook Michael Rossi, an ordained minister, who led the ceremony.

Mayen said Rossi had performed his first wedding ceremony a few weeks prior, and Pam heard about it and asked him to do hers.

“We like the people,” Pam said of the diner. “You couldn’t ask for a better place to eat. They literally bend over backwards for you.”

Wirta said the couple are very dear customers.

“It seemed like a neat thing to do when they asked,” he said. “It felt like family (and) I got a chance to give away the bride and I was honored to be asked.”

As tradition, the couple returned the next morning for breakfast and were greeted with hugs, Pam said.

Mayen said the couple told them the ceremony was more than they were expecting.

“They were surprised with the backdrop and balloons,” she said.

“We loved doing it. Now people are saying we should get in the business of weddings.

“If interested, get a hold of me. We were happy to host their union.”

A honeymoon is on hold, the couple said, as they’re planning to go to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming this summer. But after breakfast on April 17, Marv said they were going to Leavenworth just to get away.

In their spare time, the couple said they’ll continue to redo their house.

And if you’re wondering their favorite thing to eat at the diner, Pam says, “the best thing to order is the ribs. They are to die for.”

To see the Litzau’s wedding ceremony, visit facebook.com/BlackBearDiner.

Sequim Black Bear Diner, 1471 E. Washington St., is open 7:30 a.m.-8 p.m. daily, and can be reached at 360-504-2950.

Photo courtesy Bret Wirta/ Family, friends, staff and customers witnessed the marriage of Pam and Marv Litzau on April 16 inside Sequim’s Black Bear Diner.

Photo courtesy Bret Wirta/ Sequim Black Bear Diner’s resident bears served as best man and maid of honor for the wedding of Pam and Marv Litzau on April 16. It was the first marriage at the diner and possibly for the franchise, staff said.