Celebrations: Melinda Raney and Art Spigel

I’ve J’Adored a wedding or two this past year, when the feature reveals lifestyle content that speaks to larger life issues, like love and relationships. The whole point of Celebrations is to inspire the unique life moments that inspire us.

The NYTimes does a particularly good job of writing about weddings as stories in our lives, not fodder for the society pages.

the Hawaii wedding of Melinda Raney and Art SpigelThe lead into the story of Raney and Spigel’s Hawaii wedding beings with Art Spigel, “an ace in avoidance, a specialist in swerve and a grandmaster in the sweet science of bob and weave.” Great writing! Journalism 101 at its best.

Somehow I missed the fact that dodgeball was prolific everywhere in our culture, in 2004. No matter. The art of the game brought these two hardball players together.

The moment when Art Spigel asked Melinda Raney on their first date: The big moment came right after a tough playoff loss to the Armed Response team. Maybe it was the prospect of the long off-season ahead, but Mr. Spigel worked up the nerve to ask Ms. Raney out while walking her to her car. “I said: ‘I think you’re really hot and really cool. Would you go on a date with me?’ ” Mr. Spigel recalled. To his amazement, she said yes. And a second later, she kissed him.

This couple didn’t arrive at the altar without an ultimatum or two. It’s clear that Raney’s biological clock was running. Ms. Raney said she was eager to start a family, though she also had plans to savor Mr. Spigel’s company. “I laugh with him from the minute I wake up till the minute I go to bed,” she said.

Let’s hope the promise to “savor his company” continues when the champagne bottle is empty and the baby is crying at 3am. Keeping couple’s intimacy strong, in the face of conflicting demands, is one of marriage’s greatest challenges.

It took a long time for Art Spigel to kneel down on that dodge ball and ask Raney to marry him. He calls her the “big prize.”  Dodge ball is a slippery game. How nice these two pros are on the same team.

Love, Anne