The first time, they married for love.

The second time, they married to share the moment with their friends and family, and to help their fellow soldiers.

John Richard Morgan and Tricia Mundy stood under an arch, set on the plaza of the Milwaukee County War Memorial Center on Friday afternoon, surrounded by all the trappings of a traditional wedding: lilies and roses, white folding chairs, bridesmaids, a minister and a flower girl .

Missing from the scene was the gift table: No box for cards, no stack of housewares in boxes, wrapped and decorated.

The young service veterans insisted that their guests honor them instead with donations to the Wounded Warrior Project and the Wisconsin Humane Society. For Morgan and Mundy, the charities are personal causes.

"This wedding went to you," Morgan said smiling to one of his groomsmen, Thorpe Facer, an Army veteran shot five times and injured by an explosive device while serving in Iraq. Facer serves now in the Menomonee Falls Fire Department.

As Morgan talked, the groomsman turned his head slightly, to listen with his right ear, the one unaffected by the metal plate in his skull.

There are an estimated 40,000 service members like Facer, injured in their duties, who would benefit from the services provided by the Wounded Warrior Project , and by the contributions from the Morgan and Mundy wedding guests.

The bride and groom met in basic training in January 2009 at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. He came from a small town in Montana, and she was part of a military family from Wauwatosa. Her mother, Gayleigh Mundy, a retired Army captain, swore her into the service.

They married first in a civil ceremony in Texas in June 2009, and later made their home in Wisconsin.

Expressing their commitment once again, in a gathering dedicated in part to help others, they returned to the spirit that drew them to serve.

"I wanted to be the kind of person that you want to be someday," Tricia Mundy explained. "I wanted to so something that made you feel like you had a purpose."