♥ local love
ANDREA and RYAN
August 18, 2017 // Dual Edge Photography
Sometimes, the best things happen unexpectedly. Just take Ryan and Andrea. They first crossed paths when Andrea, a new nurse at a small community hospital in Michigan, was trying to draw blood from a patient with difficult-to-access veins. Ryan, a medical student completing his rotations at the time, volunteered to help and Andrea immediately thought,“ Yeah right, this poor med student probably has no clue how to even use a butterfly needle.” Little did she know, Ryan had been a paramedic— he had no problems drawing blood on his first attempt. It was the perfect ice-breaker for further conversations, which eventually lead to their first date: Pizza and the Avengers.
The next pleasant surprise came when they visited Ryan’ s hometown in Connecticut for the weekend and decided to go horseback riding with Ryan’ s brother and his wife.“ We had planted a picnic basket on a random bench in the park we were riding through, and once we came across it we told Andrea to go open it,” Ryan says.“ Inside there was a map showing where‘ X’ marked the spot of love.” That’ s when Ryan got down on one knee and proposed while photographers and family were looking on from the woods.
During the planning process, their“ simple but elegant” theme for the wedding just crept on them, while the location came about after the first venue fell through and relatives scoped out Belle Mer. Then, Andrea knew that she had found the right ensemble— a stylish two piece— upon seeing Ryan’ s grandmother’ s floored expression at her fitting, while Ryan was thrilled to find out that their DJ was able to create an atmosphere that rivalled his best nights of dancing in Miami. And, of course, their first look of the day was not to be spoiled: Having no better options, the couple chose to stay blindfolded while driving to the venue so they could still have their picture-perfect moment. But the biggest shock of the day was their impressive choreography to John Legend’ s“ All of Me,” which featured expertly timed steps, grand twirls and an epic dip finish.“ We took dance lessons for six months at Arthur Murray Dance Studios in Pennsylvania( where we currently live) and it took lots of blood, sweat and tears to have it come out the way it did,” says Andrea.“ It was definitely an‘ aw” moment for our family members that know we can’ t dance!”
122 | RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY ' S ENGAGED 2018