Weddings

Carter & Colaianni

BY ANNA ELSASSER PHOTOGRAPHY BY RYAN HERRON, RYANHERRON.COM

Alex 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

Kilpatrick & Leeper

BY GEORGIA PHILLIPS PHOTOGRAPHY BY TRACY TIMMESTER, TIMMESTERPHOTO.COM

Cary native Lauren Kilpatrick grew up spending her summers at Gwynn Valley camp in Brevard, North Carolina. She was a camper for nine years and a counselor for three, so it was an ideal spot for Bradley Leeper to pop the question in June 2019. The couple met in 2015 when mutual friends set them up on a blind date at Carrburritos. Lauren is a Carolina fan, and Bradley roots for Duke, but the two bonded over their shared love of The Avett Brothers and long-distance running.

On Dec. 14, 2019, Lauren and Bradley were married at the Chapel Hill Carriage House, a particularly significant venue for the couple, as it sits on the same family-owned property as Bradley’s childhood home. Friends and family gathered for an outdoor ceremony followed by a reception that Lauren describes as “the perfect party,” complete with hot cider and YoPo of Chapel Hill. Lauren’s dad, a pilot, surprised the couple with a two-man flyover from his formation team. Local members of the wedding party included groomsmen Mike Leeper, Casey Leeper and Rich Leeper, as well as matrons of honor Julie Kilpatrick Siegmund and Robin Harrington Sullivan. Guests enjoyed dancing to DJ Al Sibille and Counterclockwise String Band, who played the couple’s favorite Avett Brothers’ tunes.

The newlyweds live in Chapel Hill where Lauren works as a pediatric otolaryngologist at UNC School of Medicine, and Bradley owns landscaping business Precision Turfscape. CHM