WED D I NGS
Carter & Colaianni BY A N N A ELSASSER PHOTOGRA P HY BY RYA N HER R ON , RYANHERRON.COM
A
lex Colaianni and Marshéle Carter
met during their freshman year at Sunnyslope High School in Phoenix back in 1977. They shared the same friends, the same track team and a few dances at homecomings and proms. “You know as well as me that we will see each other again,” Alex wrote in Marshéle’s senior yearbook. His words came true 38 years later. After reconnecting, Alex took Marshéle on a trip to Las Vegas in April 2019, where he proposed at the Bardot Brasserie restaurant. Restaurantgoers gave the couple a standing ovation, and they ended their celebratory evening with a James Taylor concert at Caesars Palace.
Alex and Marshéle were married on Nov. 8, 2019, under a “sunny, Carolina blue sky” in the Gene Strowd Community Rose Garden in Chapel Hill. They were joined by parents Joyce Carter, Gina Milligan and Dave Milligan
of Phoenix, and the ceremony was officiated by the Rev. Ed Sansbury of Triangle Custom Ceremonies. Marshéle described it as “the perfect setting,” with “roses in full bloom” and a “look of joy in [their] mothers’ eyes and faces.” The couple lives in Chapel Hill, where Marshéle teaches public relations and writing courses at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media while Alex, an executive chef, is opening a new restaurant next year. CHM November 2020
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