The New Chapel of Love? Your Friendly Neighborhood Starbucks

February 15, 2009

Starbucks: the new chapel of love.

Because Valentine’s Day 2009 fell on a Saturday, it brought out a larger than usual number of couples determined to take their vows on the one day of the year especially set aside to celebrate love.

TheKnot.com, a wedding-centric website which had previously averaged 4,000 weddings registered on this special day, had a total of 9,000 this year.

For example, in Atlanta, the Old Castle on Peachtree Road was the site of many weddings. In  Cleveland’s Tower City, 19 couples took their vows, and another 12 renewed their vows.

And in City Halls from Chicago to Los Angeles couples lined up to say “I do!”

Our favorite story of this special day comes from the small town of Cary, North Carolina, about 8 miles west of downtown Raleigh. It all began in March of 2008. That’s when Laura Strain met her future husband, Allan Tortorice, when they accidentally bumped into each other while enjoying  an afternoon cup of coffee at their local Starbucks.

Talk about love at first scald.

So of course, when this Valentine’s Day rolled around, that Starbucks is where they got married, right between a decaf double house blend and a non-fat Carmel Macchiatto, hold-the-foam.

Here’s hoping its grounds for a loving relationship.

The former Ms. Strain could not help but wonder at the strange turn of events that led to her wedding day. “He’s wearing my coffee,” she recalled, quickly adding that she worried she had hurt him. “There was coffee everywhere, he was nicely dressed and his jacket was open and he was holding his shirt out away from him because it was so hot.”

Strain, who is 47, felt awful and was convinced that she had burned this well-dressed stranger. She gave Tortorice, who is 54, her phone number so he could call her about his dry cleaning expenses and any possible medical costs if he indeed needed to be treated for burns. Tortorice did call her the next day: not about any expenses, but to ask her out to dinner.

As they both recalled, form that point on the romance really began to percolate. Before long a chance meeting blossomed into a love affair.

The two discussed the possibility of marrying aboard a cruise ship, but the “organizational issues” for their guests made that idea impractical. Ultimately it made the most sense to them to simply return to the place where, as they explained, “our lives changed forever.”

So it was back to the Starbucks in Cary.

The bride wore a red-and-white, Valentine’s-themed dress, while the groom wore a dark suit. They stood under a flowered trellis and exchanged vows .

And with coffee grinders whirring away, twenty-five guests looking on, and a handful of caffeine craving customers waiting their turn in line, a local pastor sealed the deal.

Customers coming in for an afternoon coffee break got caught up in the moment and became impromptu witnesses to the ceremony, sending off quick cell phone photos to friends.

“It gives new meaning to the term burning love,” a happy Strain said after the ceremony, while her new groom looked on lovingly and wondered how totally different his life would have been if on that fateful afternoon last March, he had simply driven on to his next appointment never stopping for a cup of coffee and one soul mate to go.

There seems to be a lot of Starbucks cute-meet stories out there. For example, Mahlea Jones, of Nashville, Tennessee, married Bryan Bergmann, whom she met in a Starbucks there.

And Risa and Ken Sugarman of Boston had their first date at a Starbucks, after meeting online.

Must be something in that coffee!

Top 3 Starbucks Pick-Up Lines

1. “Excuse me, can I buy you a coffee?” (Very direct. Says “Hey, I’m interested.”)

2. “Is this seat taken?” (If you get a yes, it’s smooth sailing from here!)

3. “You look rushed. If you want, I don’t mind if you cut in front of me.” (This will be tremendously appreciated, And if the potential partner isn’t in a rush, he or she now has an excuse to sit with you.)

Posted in Marriage