Stefanie and Adam’s Wedding Trailer at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel

As Told By Stefanie……

1.The Meet
Adam grew up in Delaware and I have spent every summer at my family’s beach house in South Bethany Beach, DE.
In the summer of 2012, I had just returned from a walk with my dad, hot and sweaty, and dressed in sneakers, shorts and a t-shirt (not my usual style!). One of the storm shutters on my parents’ porch was stuck in the up position, so my mother had called our family friend, Gail, who takes care of our house in the winter. She had sent over a crew to fix the problem; the crew ended up being Adam and another family friend, Scott.

Adam was walking onto the deck and seeing him from my seat in the house I suddenly thought to myself, “Oh my goodness! He is so cute!!” And, of course, I had said it out loud and my mother perked up immediately. “Stefanie, you should change and go outside!” she kept saying to me. So, I eventually took my mother’s advice, quickly changed into a bathing suit and cover-up, walked outside, said hello and sat down to ‘read my book’ out by the pool.
As Adam is tinkering away with the storm shutter and unscrewing screws, I suddenly heard ‘plink, plink, plop!’ He had dropped a screw into the pool. He laughed, I laughed; the screw was on the first step of the pool so he picked it up and kept working.
Two minutes later ‘plink, plink, plop’ again! At this point, my dad wandered out of the house and said, “Adam, if you want to go for a swim, all you have to do is ask!” Adam had a witty retort, which he always does, and the fixing continued. When they were done working, we chatted for a bit and then Adam and Scott left.
Little did I know that in the meantime my mom was inside furiously texting Gail, asking about Adam and what his deal was. Later that night, Gail texted my mom and said, “A bunch of us took the boat to Fishtails (a local bar). Adam is here and asking about Stefanie. She should come down!” Well, everyone looked at me, and said, “Go go go!!” And so I went!
I drove 100 blocks down into Ocean City, Maryland, all the while telling myself ‘it’s just for fun, you’ll have a great time, and if you don’t you won’t ever see him again,’ trying to convince myself that this was going to be ok. And it was. When I arrived, Adam and I sat and talked for hours, and basically haven’t been separated since.

2. The Proposal
Background: I am a Disney-a-holic. I have been to Disney World over 55 times in my life. Every 4 years my parents and I plan a HUGE trip and invite our entire family — all 46 members — to Disney. They never know anything about what we are doing, they just show up, bags packed, and board the plane!
In June of 2014, we were going on one of those HUGE trips, and it was Adam’s first big Disney trip. We had been a few times on smaller trips since we started dating, but as everyone will tell you, a Luckow Disney trip is like nothing else! So I was excited for him to experience it.
Now, we typically give Disney some freedom to surprise us, so it didn’t shock me when on the 4th night, we were walking into Hollywood Studios and start hearing music from the Newsies. It is one of my all time favorite Disney movies and I, of course, started singing along. The whole night was Newsie themed and Disney had prepared a full musical production for us. About halfway through dinner, Jeremy Jordan, who played the original Jack Kelly on Broadway, came out on stage. I was so star struck that Adam still teases me to this day. Little did I know that Jeremy Jordan was NOT the biggest surprise of the night.
After a few songs, some Disney, some not, Jeremy asked me to join him on stage so he could sing a song just to me. He sang a song called Bonnie, from the Broadway show Bonnie and Clyde, in which he was starring. When the song, I began to make my way back to my seat, but Jeremy caught me and made me sit down again. He said that because we were technically celebrating my birthday, he had another special song to sing to me and that I shouldn’t be afraid or scared. Of course I was confused, but also kind of excited. I looked out into the audience where I thought Adam was sitting but I couldn’t really see anything because the stage lights were so bright, so I had no idea that he wasn’t still sitting there.
Jeremy began to sing Zac Brown Band’s Whatever It Is, which is Adam and my song. Of course I loved it and he sounded so great. I kept looking into the audience towards Adam (which ended up being my cousin Luke) so that we could share in the moment, so it completely caught me by surprise when Adam suddenly walked onto the stage.
At this point, alarm bells are going off in my head, and as he starts to spout words of love and affection, I start crying. Down on one knee he went, in front of my WHOLE family, who are this point were cheering and clapping! A ring appears, yes is uttered, kisses exchanged, hugs and fireworks! Yes, fireworks…it is Disney of course! Jeremy continued singing the rest of the song while Adam and I danced onstage, but to be honest, I don’t really remember any of that. Thank goodness we have a video to prove that it all really did happen!

STEFANIE & ADAM’S DREAM TEAM:
Planner: JKS Events
Videographer: Joseph Edwards Films
Photographer: Alexander Photography
Photographer: Sarah Greig
Music: Starlight Orchestras
Invitations: Ceci New York
Florist: Renny and Reed
Dress: Ceremony Sareh Nouri
Dress: Reception Maggie Sottero
Hair: Michelle from Total Concept Hair Salons
Makeup: Adele Genovese
Shoes: Jimmy Choo
Cake: Ron Ben-Israel Cakes
Ceremony The Church of St. Ignatius Loyola
Reception The Mandarin Oriental New York
After-Party The Parkview Lounge