Real Wedding: Inter-Continental The Barclay

Falling In Love At A Friend's Wedding

"Blake and I met at a wedding five years ago. He was a friend of the groom and I was a bridesmaid. We fortuitously sat next to each other at the reception and as we chatted we couldn’t help but feel that fate had had a hand in our meeting.

"I had just moved into an apartment building not five blocks from his on the Upper West Side and he worked for an investment bank across the street from the midtown law firm I was working for.

"Neither one of us were looking for a new relationship at the time, but by our second date we were planning the rest of our lives together.

"Blake proposed two years later on a surprise weekend trip to St. Thomas. We took a boat one night to the neighboring island of St. John to eat at an idyllic little restaurant on the beach. The first course was the presentation of the most beautiful diamond ring I had ever seen sitting atop a bed of puff pastry!

"As I looked up at Blake in surprise, he simply said, ‘Honey, I’ll love you forever.’

"Our whole wedding was a dream but I will never forget our ceremony. As we stood at the alter holding each other’s hands and looking into each other’s eyes, I was struck by how much love I felt for my husband-to-be in those precious moments. Blake, it turns out, was having similar feelings as he recited his vows to me. I watched tears well in his eyes for the first time in the five years we’d been together.