Above the Delaware River, a Double Wedding Straddling State Lines

Philip Andrew Kuntz and Patricia Lynn Mum or dad first met as across-the-street neighbors in Parsippany, N.J., when each have been 3 years outdated. “She wasn’t precisely the woman subsequent door, however,” Mr. Kuntz mentioned, “shut sufficient.”

Kelly Craig Heflin and Carol Diane McNitt have been effectively into maturity once they met at a public backyard in Edgewater, Md., in 2018. “Think about strolling via a park someday and assembly the lady of your goals,” Mr. Heflin mentioned.

On June 3, all of them walked collectively onto the Lumberville-Raven Rock Bridge connecting Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the place the 2 {couples} had a double marriage ceremony roughly two years after their first double date.

Although the foursome is extra of a current entity, the trio of Ms. Mum or dad, Mr. Kuntz and Mr. Heflin has a historical past that dates to their days as college students at Parsippany Excessive College. Mr. Kuntz and Mr. Heflin have been finest mates since assembly there in 1976. Mr. Kuntz and Ms. Mum or dad, nonetheless, by then ran in numerous circles and weren’t as shut.

The 2 grew even additional aside following their commencement in 1978. After highschool, Ms. Mum or dad and her household left Parsippany for Fort Wayne, Ind., the place she later met the person whom she would wed and lift two youngsters with earlier than their 35-year marriage resulted in divorce in 2019.

By February 2020, Ms. Mum or dad, 62, had began thus far once more. That month she posted on Fb a couple of suitor who had talked her ear off. A day later, Mr. Kuntz, 62, stunned her with a textual content message. His eldest sister, Susan Rochelle, had seen Ms. Mum or dad’s Fb publish and instructed him she was single.

Mr. Kuntz and Ms. Mum or dad began catching up by telephone, then through video calls utilizing Fb Messenger. Ms. Mum or dad, who on the time was residing in Grandville, Mich., discovered that Mr. Kuntz had additionally gone via a divorce in 2019 — his second — and was residing in Rumson, N.J., together with his twin sons, Liam and McDonagh, now 14.

Whereas speaking with Ms. Mum or dad, Mr. Kuntz mentioned he “was so impressed by her spirit.” Within the years previous her divorce, she had misplaced a number of family members. Her sister died of most cancers in 2013. Two years later, her elder son, Andrew, died at age 28 in 2015. (Her youthful son, Alex, is now 31.) And in 2016, she misplaced her father.

Mr. Kuntz, now a journalist at Bloomberg in Manhattan, had heard about all from his sister. However discussing the losses with Ms. Mum or dad, a retired day care operator, introduced her into sharper focus. “She’s a very optimistic individual,” he mentioned. “She’s unfaze-able. She’s unflappable.” By the spring of 2020, he had fallen in love with the lady he had final seen in 2003, at their twenty fifth highschool reunion.

Ms. McNitt, 54, and Mr. Heflin, 63, had by then developed an equally sturdy bond after assembly on the Historic London City & Gardens in Edgewater, in August 2018.

Mr. Heflin, a director of enterprise growth for BAE Methods Inc., the U.S. arm of a global protection, aerospace and safety firm, was residing in Edgewater. Ms. McNitt, a psychological well being clinician on the Luminis Well being Anne Arundel Medical Middle in Annapolis, was residing in Crownsville, Md. Each have been nearing the tip of lengthy marriages, and finalized their respective divorces the next 12 months.

“Kelly was strolling his two Border collies, and I used to be there to see the gardens and historic websites,” Ms. McNitt mentioned. “He noticed me studying a historic plaque and we ended up chatting for quarter-hour.”

They did not alternate contact info earlier than parting methods, however that didn’t deter Ms. McNitt from monitoring down Mr. Heflin on LinkedIn that very same evening. Although she didn’t have his final identify, she had sufficient info to piece collectively that he was the identical Kelly who then labored as a program supervisor at AT&T’s workplace in Columbia, Md.

Mr. Heflin mentioned he was “utterly shocked by her reaching out in that style” — in a great way. “To get an invite on LinkedIn from her was simply unimaginable.”

“We most likely despatched one another 20 LinkedIn messages every” earlier than exchanging electronic mail addresses, he added. “Carol and I may be the one individuals who’ve romantic text-messaged in a flurry on LinkedIn.”

Mr. Heflin, who has a son, Ian, 30, and two daughters, Alyssa, 28, and Cassandra, 25, described the pair’s early conversations as calm and simple. Ms. McNitt, who has no youngsters, felt the identical. Plus, “I assumed he was extremely good-looking,” she mentioned.

The day after they traded electronic mail addresses, Mr. Heflin requested Ms. McNitt on a primary date, inviting her to a automotive present in Edgewater the place his 1967 Pontiac Firebird was on show. Afterward, they went for drinks on the Pier Waterfront Bar & Grill, the place they talked for hours.

Inside two months of assembly Mr. Heflin, Ms. McNitt mentioned, she had fallen for him; Mr. Heflin mentioned he fell for her even sooner. In August 2019, a 12 months after they met, the 2 moved in collectively, into a brand new residence she had just lately purchased in Crownsville.

When Mr. Heflin and Ms. McNitt bought engaged in September 2021, their first thought was that they might elope or do a five-minute marriage ceremony close to the plaque within the backyard the place they met.

Then Mr. Kuntz floated one other concept. He and Ms. Mum or dad, who had moved into his Rumson residence earlier that 12 months, had additionally determined to get married. So why not do a double marriage ceremony?

By then the 2 {couples} had been speaking on a weekly foundation since their first digital double date in the summertime of 2020, when Ms. McNitt and Mr. Heflin shared a display screen in Maryland, Mr. Kuntz joined from New Jersey and Ms. Mum or dad logged on from Michigan. For onscreen stability, all of them purchased the identical iPad stands “so no one would get seasick,” Mr. Kuntz mentioned.

In July 2020, Ms. Mum or dad flew to New Jersey to go to Mr. Kuntz, and the foursome met in individual. She and Ms. McNitt shortly developed a detailed friendship of their very own. “Patti may be very straightforward to love,” Ms. McNitt mentioned.

As soon as Mr. Kuntz urged the thought of marrying collectively at an intimate occasion, the 4 shortly embraced it. However determining the place to tie a double knot took extra time.

Mr. Kuntz and Ms. Mum or dad, who grew to become engaged in November 2021, and Mr. Heflin, their fellow Parsippany Excessive alumnus, have been on board for a small marriage ceremony someplace close to Mr. Kuntz’s home in New Jersey. Ms. McNitt, who grew up in central Pennsylvania, had hoped to marry in her residence state.

“Carol had no actual connection to New Jersey,” Mr. Kuntz mentioned.

After they recognized New Hope, Pa., which is simply throughout the New Jersey border, as a potential location, Mr. Kuntz remembered a marriage he had just lately attended within the space.

On that journey, he had come throughout — fairly actually — the Lumberville-Raven Rock Bridge, a pedestrian walkway above the Delaware River with one finish in Delaware Township, N.J., and the opposite in Lumberville, Pa. Staging a marriage on it meant that each {couples} may marry collectively, however in numerous states.

Upon seeing an image of the bridge, which opened in 1947, Ms. McNitt dedicated straight away. “I used to be like, that is good,” she mentioned.

In February, after the {couples} had discovered their splendid venue, Mr. Kuntz introduced their plan to Jodee Inscho, the director of neighborhood affairs on the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Fee. She signed off on the placement, asking solely that they not stop pedestrians from crossing.

After they arrived on June 3, the brides and grooms congregated on the bridge’s midpoint of their marriage ceremony apparel. “We rigorously counted the doohickeys holding the suspension cables to find out the precise center, so Patti and I may get married on one aspect of that line and Kelly and Carol may stand on the opposite,” Mr. Kuntz mentioned. He and Mr. Heflin then performed rock, paper, scissors to determine which couple would turn into newlyweds first.

Consistent with their joint want for a easy, intimate ceremony, no friends have been invited. As an alternative, a couple of dozen passers-by watched and witnessed, ready politely for the marriage to wrap earlier than crossing the bridge.

Ms. Mum or dad and Mr. Kuntz have been wed by James Waltman, the mayor of Delaware Township, N.J., on the New Jersey aspect of the bridge. Ms. McNitt and Mr. Heflin have been married in a self-uniting Quaker ceremony presided over by Mark Baum Baicker, chairman of the Solebury Township Board of Supervisors, on its Pennsylvania aspect.

The brides and grooms every recited handwritten vows earlier than each {couples}, pronounced married in about quarter-hour, exited with their officiants on the Pennsylvania aspect and walked to the Black Bass Lodge, in Lumberville, for a post-wedding drink.

Later, the newlyweds went to the Dubliner, a bar in New Hope. On listening to of the marriage, the bartender there poured all 4 a glass of champagne, then strapped on a guitar and serenaded the newlyweds with the Temptations hit “My Woman.”

After spending their marriage ceremony evening at a bed-and-breakfast in New Hope, Ms. McNitt and Mr. Heflin joined Ms. Mum or dad and Mr. Kuntz at their residence in Rumson, the place the {couples} hosted a reception with 75 friends.

Reflecting on their nuptials, Ms. McNitt mentioned, “It was actually simply the 4 of us having enjoyable.”

On This Day

When June 3, 2022

The place The Lumberville-Raven Rock Bridge connecting New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Double Happiness, Double Thanks Neither couple knew their officiant earlier than they hatched the bridge plan, however each officiants welcomed taking part within the marriage ceremony. As a thanks, every officiant obtained a present certificates to a restaurant on both aspect of the bridge.

One thing Borrowed Ms. Mum or dad was at the least the fourth bride to put on a marriage scarf that belonged to her sister Kim London, who died in 2013. “My daughter-in-law and two of my nieces have additionally worn it,” Ms. Mum or dad mentioned. “Everyone who has gotten married since has worn it. I stored it with me all day.”