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Kerry Kristine McElrone and local musician Joe Trainor got married where they live—on Kirk Avenue in Wilmington.
The Hijinks of Getting Hitched Big or small, weddings can be full of surprises By Scott Pruden Photos by Joe del Tufo and Jim Coarse of Moonloop Photography
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very couple wants to create a joyful wedding day that also adds a special spin that says, “Here’s who we are. Let’s celebrate it!” But when it’s time to plan the wedding, there are those couples content to tread the well-worn path formed either by family tradition or wedding traditions fed to us through pop and consumer culture. Those are the weddings that, in the minds of guests, tend to run together over the years. But weddings are, by their nature, meant to be memorable. Sometimes those memories result from careful planning and flawless execution. Other times, thanks to nature, lousy luck, the random inebriated guest or the curmudgeonly father of the bride/ groom, the day is unforgettable for entirely unexpected reasons. And those who eschew the traditional church wedding and reception hall party can find themselves faced with challenges.
Take, for instance, Kerry Kristine McElrone. In planning her wedding to well-known Wilmington musician Joe Trainor last September, she knew she wanted to get married someplace different. What she found, however, was that all the “different” places had realized their appeal as marriage locations and created pricey wedding and reception packages to take advantage of that appeal. The couple lived on Kirk Avenue in Wilmington, and the one-block street between North Jackson Street and North Van Buren Street is known for its annual block parties. So, early on in the planning, the joking suggestion was that Kerry and Joe should get married right there. “We probably should have just stuck with that idea from the get-go, because that’s exactly what we did,” she says. ► JUNE 2016 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM
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5/24/16 10:00 AM