ULC - IN THE NEWS
Given a Future She Didn’t Expect
Katharine Ann Moser and Jaclyn Marguerite Conklin met in June 2020 as masked colleagues on temporary assignments at a long-term care facility in Lake Placid, N.Y. Their friendship grew through twice-weekly hikes and walks, and turned romantic on a camping trip in 2021. The couple married before 106 guests at Voco Saranac Lake before a dusting of morning snow moved the outdoor ceremony inside. Bethany Rau, a friend ordained through the Universal Life Church for the occasion, officiated.
Source: The NY Times
Finding Many Things in Common, Big and Small
Casey Lynn Echols and Kyle David Sutton matched on Hinge in 2023 and spent more than 12 hours on their first date, snowboarding at Copper Mountain, bowling and sharing dinner before a kiss in a parking lot. The couple married in the courtyard of Hermann-Grima House in New Orleans’ French Quarter before 110 guests. William Craver, a close friend of the bride ordained by the Universal Life Church for the occasion, officiated. Afterward, they led a second line parade to their reception at Broussard’s, with a brass band playing as guests waved handkerchiefs monogrammed with the couple’s first names.
Source: The NY Times
The First Date Was a Dud, So They Tried Again
Jacob Edwarde Perlson and Ethan Shane Wise matched on Hinge in 2019 and spent the weeks before their first date exchanging favorite poems by text — an idea born, Perlson said, from a desire to learn more about Wise. Their first date was underwhelming by both accounts, but a second dinner the following night changed everything. The couple married before 11 guests in Hunter, N.Y., with Hercules, their goldendoodle, serving as ring bearer. Wise’s brother Harper, ordained by the Universal Life Church, officiated.
Source: The NY Times
Their Ice Cream Date Lasted Over Four Hours
Lucas Quinn Bladen first noticed Megan Elise Handau by her laugh in a human rights theory class at the University of Connecticut. Their first real date — ice cream at the campus dairy bar, four hours of conversation and a kiss at sunset — set the tone for a relationship that followed them through Capitol Hill internships, law school and a move to New Haven. The couple married at the Jonathan Edwards Winery in North Stonington, Conn. Brian Steele, a friend ordained by the Universal Life Church for the occasion, officiated.
Source: The NY Times
Her Famous Dog Helped Them Meet. They Went on to Foster 31 More.
Isabel Dixon Klee and Jacob David Zerhusen matched on Hinge in 2020, weeks after he had unknowingly run through the background of a sunset photo she snapped in their Brooklyn neighborhood. For their first date, he prepared two charcuterie boards — one for Klee, and a dog-friendly one for her dog, Simon. The couple's dog-friendly wedding at Forest Lake Camp in Chestertown, N.Y., was themed Camp Simon in honor of Simon, who had died two months prior, with Klee walking the aisle carrying a bouquet with his name tag attached. Megan Amsterdam, Klee's best friend and a Universal Life Church minister, officiated before 110 guests and 12 dogs.
Source: The NY Times
Theirs Was a Hollywood Beginning
Thomas Eric Dolby and Spencer Enright Alcorn arrived at their Lake Tahoe wedding by Grand Craft speedboat to the strains of Handel's coronation anthem, setting the tone for a ceremony held on the lawn of the Dolby family vacation home — a property with its own Hollywood history. The reception followed inside a Raj Tent styled after designer Tony Duquette's Camelot aesthetic, with sitar players, opera singers and Broadway tunes. Ali Goldstein, a close friend and Universal Life Church minister, officiated before 80 guests.
Source: The NY Times
They Met at a Corner Store. Their Love Story Took a Few Detours.
Graylen Rose Gatewood and Charles William McFarlane met at a corner store in Tivoli, N.Y., when he comped her Oreos because her purchase didn't meet the credit card minimum. After briefly dating in college, then reuniting at a party years later, they married at the Sag Harbor Whaling & Historical Museum — the same venue where her parents wed in 1994 — in a ceremony so community-built that a 91-year-old relative sewed all the tablecloths on a 1910s treadle machine. Their friend Eleanor Robb, ordained through the Universal Life Church for the occasion, officiated before 142 guests.
Source: The NY Times
One Hour Late for the First Date, but Glad He Didn’t Bail
Zachary John Martellucci nearly walked out when Jordan Alan Shavarebi showed up over an hour late to their first date — held up picking out a suit for a queer history pop-up he had helped produce. He stayed, and the two talked so long they ended up kissing in line at a Peruvian restaurant. The couple married at Garibaldi Plaza in Washington Square Park before 130 guests, with a reception at Judson Memorial Church. Chelsy Mitchell, a close friend ordained by the Universal Life Church, officiated.
Source: The NY Times
Meeting in Midlife and Making a Dream Come True
Anna Louise Kashner and Ronald Lee Clark Jr., both Seattle-area natives who matched on Hinge in 2019, spent years in what Clark described as a relay race of cold feet before he proposed in New Orleans with a poem commissioned from a street poet. The couple married at the Barn at Wilson Farm in Lake Tapps, Wash., before a small group of family and close friends, with a reception that included a salsa lesson and goat feeding. Chava Mirel, ordained through the Universal Life Church, officiated.
Source: The NY Times
A Light-Up Prosthetic Arm Piqued His Interest
Colin Andrew Pitt and Alexandra Marion Glasser met on a Hinge date in April 2022, where conversation turned to a light-up silicone arm Glasser was building for a music video — a detail that broke the ice for Pitt, a director of photography who saw immediately how he could help. They married in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., before 100 guests encouraged to dress "beautiful, interesting, magical, weird, elegant or fully yourself." Benjamin Glasser, the bride's brother, was ordained by the Universal Life Church for the occasion and officiated alongside the groom's brother.
Source: The NY Times
Forget the Warning Against Dating People in Your Dorm
Madeleine Elizabeth Pizzarelli and Alexander Clark Randaccio met on their first night at Brown University in 2016, when Pizzarelli said seeing him was like the "Dream Weaver" scene in "Wayne's World." After years of friendship, a false start, and a senior year upended by the pandemic, they married at the Buffalo History Museum in Buffalo. Brooks Ashmanskas, an actor and close friend of the bride's family, was ordained by the Universal Life Church for the occasion and officiated.
Source: The NY Times
They divorced. Years later, they married each other again.
Melanie Miguel and Michael Shiloh married for the second time on July 26 in the San Francisco garden of a friend's home, 35 years after their first wedding and more than a decade after their divorce. The couple, both in their 70s, exchanged vows under a cream-colored satin huppah surrounded by their three daughters and four grandchildren. Their youngest daughter, Yasmine Shiloh, officiated after being ordained through the Universal Life Church for the occasion.
Source: The NY Times
As They Read Their Vows, Orange Ash Dusted Their Hair
Blake Barclay Hogge and Trystan Michael Nickovich, who met on Tinder in 2021 and planned to marry in Utah's Beaver Canyon, where Hogge's family had gathered for generations, relocated their wedding to his parents' Alpine backyard just 72 hours before the ceremony after a wildfire consumed 59,000 acres near the family cabin. As the couple exchanged handwritten vows, orange ash from the still-burning fire drifted through the air, dusting their hair and clothing. Nickovich's brother Kyle Nickovich, ordained by the Universal Life Church for the occasion, officiated.
Source: The NY Times
A New York City Council Member Helped Play Cupid
Senti Sojwal and Ben Patrick Fuller-Googins, set up by a mutual friend and New York City Council member who told Fuller-Googins that Sojwal was a diamond, married at Black Walnut Farm in Saugerties, N.Y., before 136 guests. Their ceremony honored Sojwal's Indian roots through an exchange of rose garlands and her walk down the aisle to a beloved Bollywood song, while Fuller-Googins's father offered an Irish wedding blessing. Nicholas McKenna, a close friend ordained by the Universal Life Church for the occasion, officiated.
Source: The NY Times
Their ‘Neurospiciness’ Integrated Well
Marjorie Lynne Kase and Daniel Paul Rubin, who met on OkCupid in 2018 after he won her over with a tardigrade-themed haiku, married at the San Francisco Elks Lodge No. 3 — the same spot where Kase had secretly decided on their first kiss that it would make the perfect wedding venue. Their sci-fi-meets-enchanted-forest ceremony featured a stuffed pigeon bearing the rings and closed with a breaking of the glass and a Vulcan salute, with guests departing via a 7-Eleven-style kiosk of snacks in honor of their 7/11 wedding date. Molly Cahen, a comedian and Universal Life Church minister, officiated.
Source: The NY Times
It Was Love at First Saxophone Note
Aubrey Jane Dela Cruz and Rylan Scott Nordbeck met at a backyard concert in Glendora, Calif., where she watched him play a saxophone solo to Taylor Swift's "Love Story" and told a friend she thought she was in love. Nordbeck, spotting her across the room, thought she was the most beautiful person he had ever seen. The self-described Swiftie and the musician made their union official in a ceremony officiated by their close friend Ryan Bartlett, who was ordained by the Universal Life Church for the occasion.
Source: The NY Times
She Was Warned About Rock 'n' Roll Marriages. She Didn’t Listen.
Raquel Ivonne Figlo and Brian Edward Bell, who met while organizing a bon voyage party for Kiss fans in 2019, lost touch for six years before reconnecting and marrying at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel, Calif. Their rock-themed reception featured tables named for bands and a live performance of "November Rain" accompanying the bride down an aisle overlooking the Pacific Ocean, with guests throwing up "rock on" hand signs as the couple kissed. David Ellefson, a founder of Megadeth and a longtime friend of the bride who had once warned her to marry someone more conventional, officiated after having been ordained by the Universal Life Church.
Source: The NY Times
As Soon as He Stopped Looking, There She Was
Henry Fogler Stevenson and Nadya Teresa Okamoto, who met in 2019 at an after-party in Los Angeles despite having little in common — he loathes social media while she has over four million followers — married at La Luna Farm in New Paltz, N.Y., on a property owned by Stevenson's aunt and uncle with views of the Shawangunk Mountains. David Kahl, one of the family friends who helped raise the bride, walked her down the aisle, while Mark Holloway, another of those friends and a Universal Life Church minister, officiated.
Source: The NY Times
Hippy Hippy Shake
In the summer of 1971, the Universal Life Church requested permission to hold a picnic for "at least 200 people" at Farragut State Park in Idaho. What followed was anything but a quiet afternoon in the park. An estimated 15,000 hippies, Jesus Freaks, and festivalgoers descended on the grounds over Fourth of July weekend in what North Idaho came to call its own Woodstock — complete with open-air revelry that sent state officials into a panic. Governor Cecil Andrus welcomed the crowd anyway, and when it was all over, the park manager noted that the picnickers left the grounds cleaner than the Boy Scouts had two years prior.
Source: Coeur d'Alene Press
A Rough Introduction, a Fast Friendship and One Very Cozy Cat
Nadia Tiffany Gakou and Jonathan Samuel Masci met at a graduate school networking event at N.Y.U. Wagner in 2018, where he famously refused to exchange contact information before quickly thinking better of it. After years of friendship deepened by shared loss — she lost her mother in 2019, he lost his father in 2022 — they began dating and married on June 27 in a ceremony at the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center. Tanya Pushkine, a civil minister ordained through the Universal Life Church, officiated.
Source: The NY Times
