Howie Dorough and Leigh Boniello tie the knot

Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough Gets Married

SATURDAY DECEMBER 08, 2007 06:50 PM EST



By Steve Helling



Howie Dorough and Leigh Boniello





Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough and longtime girlfriend Leigh Boniello
married Saturday in his hometown of Orlando, wedding guests confirm to
PEOPLE.


"The whole thing was like it belonged in a bridal magazine," one guest
tells PEOPLE of the Catholic ceremony, held at St. James Cathedral. "It
was absolutely perfect."



Dorough, 34, proposed to Boniello last New Year's. "She wasn't
expecting it, and I was quite nervous – more nervous about proposing to
her in front of 40 family and friends than about performing in front of
40,000 people onstage," Dorough told PEOPLE earlier this year of his
proposal at Boniello's family home in New Jersey.


The couple met in 2000, when Boniello, a film-exec-turned-real-estate-broker, was working as the Backstreet Boys' Webmaster.



The Backstreet Boys are currently promoting their sixth studio album, Unbreakable, released in October.

Deborah Gibson: Howie Dorough High-Fived His Bride


What better way to celebrate a wedding than with a passionate high
five? That was Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough's theory when he tied the
knot with longtime girlfriend Leigh Boniello.


After the pair was officially pronounced man and wife
on Saturday, "They high-fived each other in church," says singer
Deborah Gibson, a longtime friend of Dorough's who attended their
Orlando nuptials. "They really are best friends and that came across
throughout the whole ceremony."

It carried over to the reception when the newlyweds launched into their first dance to "Endless Love."


"They didn't just romantically dance together," Gibson tells
PEOPLE. "They acted it out like they were in a video. They were very
playful with each other. It was really cute."

Calling the pair "equal partners," Gibson couldn't be happier for the new Mr. & Mrs. Dorough.


"He waited until it was the right girl and I've watched her
patiently wait because he's been on the road a lot," says Gibson. "So
[the wedding] was great to see."