Every great wedding begins with a great love story, and this one is certainly no exception. What started as daily conversations between customer and Starbucks barista turned into a let’s-grow-old-together love with the wedding that’s about to unfold. Photographed by The More We See, it’s a gorgeous take on organic, industrial-driven design, and there’s so much in the gallery right here.
From Celebrant Alisa Tongg…Love Story In the fall of 2010, Robin and Alex were both in the middle of serious life transitions. Alex had just returned home to Massachusetts after living in Las Vegas for a year. Robin had transferred from Berklee College of Music, where she had studied songwriting, to UMass Boston where she was determined to find something to be passionate about.
During this exciting time, they found themselves working right down the street from each other, Robin at Starbucks and Alex at the Apple Store. Alex would come in 3-4 times a day to order a hot chocolate, he’d hang around the bar to chat with Robin during his breaks. After one and half months, and about 100 cups of hot cocoa, Robin told Alex that she was leaving her job. Determined not to let Robin slip away, Alex wasted no time in securing all of Robin’s contact information.
Not long after Alex’s thorough fact finding expedition, they went out on their first date. They call it their first-date-and-a-half, because they spent over 24 hours together. And it was a night of adventure that set them both apart from any other person they had ever met before. They traversed the entire city, saved a strangers life in the T station, met part of Alex’s family, and…fell in love.
Three days after their first official date, Robin was traveling back home here to Pennsylvania to spend the Christmas holiday with her family. Alex felt the urgency to solidify their relationship. There in the bustle of Boston’s South Station, he asked Robin to be his girlfriend. Robin says she couldn’t argue, “Despite my doubts about how we hadn’t known each other for very long, he told me that he thought ‘we should take a leap of faith together, and if things weren’t going well down the road, we would figure it out.’”
Alex and Robin clasped hands and took that leap of faith together. But it wasn’t always easy. Polar opposites in almost every way, Robin and Alex spent a lot of energy in those early days, simultaneously getting to know each other and learning the intricacies of partnership. A few months in, Robin told Alex that she thought they were both meant to be with people more similar. So, they took some time apart.
But Alex refused and went into full wooing mode. Robin says that, “his incredible, seemingly irrational persistence in winning me back, and his commitment to me from literally the first week that we knew each other, is the most comforting and inspiring thing to me…” It wasn’t long before their undeniable attraction for the other and their best friend-like connection put this couple on a serious track. At the end of that year, they were planning their wedding.
Alex says that, “the two most opposite people can make something beautiful work. We work very well being two completely different people.” Over the past three years, side-by-side, they’ve experienced moments of grief and loss, broken bones, the accomplishment of completing graduate school, the challenges of unemployment, the uncertainty that comes with starting out in a career, and the joy that comes from planning their future together. When it came time for Alex to propose, he could hardly contain his excitement. While Robin was at home one day, Alex went to “work” taking the engagement ring on a parade to show it to all of their friends before coming home to surprise Robin. Through it all, Robin says, “that no matter what comes up in our lives, choosing love will always be a constant, it’s made us stronger.”
It’s only fitting that the rings made one more trip around their friends before they exchanged them. Robin and Alex invited their friends to participate in a Ring Warming; their rings were tied together with a piece of ribbon and passed around so that every guest could hold them in their hands and add their best wishes, prayers and hopes for the couple and their marriage. When it came time to exchange their vows, the couple selected promises inspired by the science of relationship psychology.
Perhaps the most moving moment of the ceremony came when the bride surprised her groom and guests with a ceremony serenade. Robin strapped her guitar over her shoulder and performed an emotional and heartfelt rendition of “Can’t Help Falling In Love” while Alex stood enchanted.
Photography: The More We See | Coordinator: Brava Weddings | Floral Design: Terrain at Styers | Wedding Dress: Reem Acra | Cake: Whipped Bakeshop | Catering: Terrain at Styers | Celebrant: Alisa Tongg, Celebrant | Venue: Terrain at Styers | Hair/Makeup: Bella Angel, LLC | Photobooth: Not A Booth Photobooth