A Lakeside Summer Soiree with a Serendipitous Beginning

Megan Kemp
October 30, 2018
Categories: Real Weddings, Romantic, The Blog

I’d bet if we did a poll on the most romantic movies, The Notebook might just pop up as an all-time favorite. So when I saw this “Noah and Allie” moment, with the couple in a sweet row boat on a mossy waterbed, I knew our brides were going to love this one! Sabina and Michael’s storybook romance began in the most unconventional and sweep-you-off-your-feet way and the enchantment of their Monroe, NY wedding followed suit. In a sea of fresh greenery, delicate florals, and epic photos by Bashful Captures… enjoy!

From photographer Bashful Captures: “Sabina and Michael has such an awesome love story. Michael’s sister was reading Westchester Magazine’s “Beautiful People” issue and saw a girl that had many interests that were similar to her brother, Michael.

Then she contacted one of the editors of the magazine, who agreed to pass along her brother’s contact information. Then she didn’t hear anything for two years and one day, Michael told her that he has been dating Sabina and the rest is history! Just like their love story, their wedding was so sweet and beautiful.

At a lakeside mansion, set in a tranquil forest setting made for a magical intimate evening with their family and friends. They started the evening with a garden ceremony followed by cocktail hour on the terrace of the 18th century mansion. Then the dinner was held in its courtyard under the stars, and dancing in the candlelit ballroom.”

From the bride… We joke around about how he picked me out of a magazine. In reality, it was a little more involved than that.

Michael had just started his medical internship in Connecticut, and the hospital was his life. Around that time, I was featured in a magazine for Westchester County, an issue his sister Samantha happened to flip through. Call it a sister’s sixth sense, divine intervention, or just savante-like intuition, somehow with her suggestion that magazine ended up in Michael’s hands.

I had never even entertained the idea of online dating. Blind dates to me were a joke. Yet, somehow, he reached out, and somehow I answered. After 4 years of being out of touch with reality in med school myself, life as I knew it had moved on without me. Friends got married, moved, started new jobs, had babies. So I said to myself, I’m coming back to NY, why not meet this guy? He was a doctor in training. He liked movies. His birthday was in September. We already had 3 things in common.

I wasn’t expecting too much. Even in the days before Tinder, I was always under the impression that these things hardly ever worked out for the long term. Yet after 3 hours of playful conversation and wine, they closed the bar on us on our first date. I was intrigued by how fast time flew that night.

More surprises came later – we discovered that although we went to different schools – I to private, him to public – we found out that we frequented the same Blockbuster video store in our teenage years with our own gaggles of friends. My friend’s dad coached a basketball team that his sister was on in elementary school. He went to high school with one of my best friends’ college roommates.

Oddly enough, our paths had always crossed without actually crossing.

After a few weeks of dating, one night when we parted ways he called me out of the blue. He just saw a shooting star, he said. The rarity of it somehow prompted a conversation about our relationship becoming exclusive. Now six years later on a hot and sunny summer day, July 28, 2018, our families and friends gathered in a garden ceremony at Arrow Park in Monroe, NY.

It was an intimate setting with cocktail hour on the ivy wrought terrace of the mansion overlooking the expansive lake, a mansion that once belonged to the Cooper Union founder and engineer, followed by dinner under the stars. Color scheme was pure and simple – green, white, hints of champagne.

Samantha, Michael’s sister and our fairy godmother/unicorn gave a speech about how we met. His best friends gifted me with his high school hockey jersey (Michael had been a captain of the local hockey team). Dinner was a family style Tuscan menu, beginning with mixed field greens with cucumber, red onion, tomato, olives with homemade balsamic dressing, rigatoni with fresh mozzarella, followed by oregano Chicken in fresh garlic and lemon wine sauce, and an assortment of vegetable side dishes such as saffron rice, herbed risotto, and roasted root vegetables.

Our first dance was in tune to “Girl from North Country” by Bob Dylan, featured in Silver Linings’ Playbook, our first movie date, and was a tribute to our mutual love for movies. Dance floor shenanigans culminated with a cake cutting ceremony to the tune of “Belly Full” by Dave Matthews Band, followed by dessert hour and a table full of Italian style desserts. The cake had 3 layers – elderflower, salted caramel and strawberry shortcake and the groom’s cake was funfetti (his fave), in the form on a giant hockey puck. The night ended with a bonfire after party and s’mores and sparklers on the beach by the lake…and stars.