A Insiders dish on THE wedding STILL WANT answers about the Answer's wedding on Friday? Here's a dozen tidbits you may not know: * What was the deal with former Sixers president Pat Croce? Last week, Croce told the Daily News that he hadn't been invited to the wedding, but there he was smiling and waving at The Mansion Friday evening. A source inside the Sixers organization said that after news of the apparent snub appeared in Thursday's paper, the bride-to-be phoned Croce and invited him to the celebration. A Sixers spokeswoman said yesterday that the vacationing Croce, now a consultant to the team, would not be available to chat about his attendance at the wedding, and insisted the exec's failure to receive a written invitation was due to "a mix-up." * The wedding was extremely late getting started - not that most folks had a clue what time it was supposed to get under way anyway. Iverson friend Gary Moore, who served as a groomsman, told the Daily News on Friday afternoon that it was supposed to begin at 6:30 p.m. (To keep the ceremony "private," Iverson had kept most details about the affair under wraps.) One reason for the delay: A source said Ann Iverson was an hour late leaving the Four Seasons Hotel. * Daily News sources said that dinner was not served until after midnight and by then a number of guests had already left. * Although most of the wedding guests were dressed up, at least two guests showed up in shorts - one draping a white bath towel over his head as he followed Iverson into the banquet hall. * The cocktail portion of the event lasted two hours. * Guests were served little iced cookies decorated with the couple's initials, T&A. * Candles were handed out as wedding favors. * The couple hired a caricaturist to draw portraits of guests and a clown to entertain the children who attended the wedding. * The wedding was split among three floors of the catering facility. The wedding ceremony was held on the first floor. The second floor was for appetizers and drinks and dinner was served on the third floor. * When Iverson and his bride left the wedding at 2:36 a.m., about three dozen onlookers yelled out their names and asked them to come over. They did. Surrounded by other guests, the newly-married couple shook hands and hugged their fans, many of whom had been waiting for nearly 12 hours. He even gave one fan the bottle of champagne that he'd walked out with. (A bartender reported that Iverson and Turner had bottles of Cristal champagne on their table.) * After the couple departed, Ann Iverson, dressed in an elegant black gown, greeted fans. Accompanied by other family members, Iverson's mom spent about 10 minutes passing out red roses, orchids, coxcomb and other flowers and exhorted fans to "keep it real." She was warm, friendly and very down to earth. She thanked the crowd for supporting her son. "I can't believe she did that," said Barbara Barkley, who brought her daughter to the event and had been waiting since 6 p.m. to catch a glimpse of Iverson and Turner. "This has definitely been worth the wait. I'm so glad I came here." Here's what onlookers thought about Allen Iverson's marriage to Tawanna Turner: "I think it's nice that he didn't run off with some celebrity, and that he married his childhood sweetheart," said Betty Reid, 35, who took her twin daughters with her to see if they could catch a glimpse of Iverson Friday night. "Forget the basketball. Forget the rap music. I'm proud of the person he became today. All he did was grow up, and I'm very happy for him and Tawanna," said Darlene Wallace, 43, from Wynnefield. *		Author Jenice Armstrong Jose Vargas   Source Daily News   Return to Articles