In a true tale as old as time, our story begins with two people who found love where they least expected it... at the dishwashing station in the back of Nonna's Italian Kitchen to be exact. We were 20, Martin had a man bun and a cool car. Steph had braces and a bad haircut.

Steph and her family had just moved to the area and she needed a college job closer to home. Her mom was tired of watching her bum around the house during the summer semester and encouraged her to apply for a waitressing job at the Italian restaurant down the road. "It's a nice family that owns it and there are lots of girls your age working there!" she would say.

Steph applied and got hired on the spot, quickly making friends with the other employees. The other girls liked to ask her about boy drama that wasn't seeming to go anywhere. Almost every time the subject was mentioned, a particular chef from the back would saunter by in the background and in a mischievous little voice say "I have a son" with a smirk before disappearing back into the kitchen.

"Yeah right," Steph thought, "who even is that lady anyway?"

Fast forward a month. It was the first Saturday evening shift that Steph worked at Nonna's. By 4:00 the dinner rush was already flooding in. She grabbed the bucket and paced through the lively kitchen for more ice, noticing many new faces in the night staff. As she rounded the back corner, she was stopped in her tracks. In front of the ice machine and fully drenched in water was the tallest, most bearded, most European dishwasher she had ever seen. She had to say something. Her bubbly side immediately took over.

"Hi!!!" she said with probably way too much enthusiasm,

" Are you new here too? I haven't seen you around yet!"

"... uh no," he said darkly while turning toward her with a sopping wet apron and a grumpy disposition, "I've been here since I was like, 14."

Suddenly the awkwardness was apparent. Clearly this guy was not in the talking mood.

"Uh, oh, okay. Bye!" she said, and with lightning speed, grabbed the ice and spun on her heels back to the front of the restaurant, staying there for the rest of the shift. Her cheeks felt hot as she tried to push the thought of the grumpy, handsome dishwasher with the nice beard out of her head. 'Well, I blew that' she thought.

Meanwhile in the back, our handsome dishwasher's name was Martin, and believe it or not, the matchmaking chef from earlier was his mother, Mira!

Martin in fact, did not work at Nonna's Italian Kitchen anymore. However, in a moment of need and at his mom's persistent request, he offered to help the kitchen staff that Saturday evening because they were short handed. It had been a long day of work at his current job, after which, he rushed to the other side of town to put on his dishwashing apron one last time.

"My mom owes me for this one," he thought to himself as he washed dinner dishes in the back of his childhood workplace. It was nice seeing all the familiar faces of his old co-workers, but he was ready to shower and change out of his work clothes. Martin had been awake since 4:00am.

Martin, his mother, sister and Uncle had worked for Nonna's since 2010. He had grown up with the family who owned and operated the restaurant and knew all the staff. Even after he retired from his restaurant days, he stayed closely involved with the group through his mom. Nothing and no one was new to him at Nonna's Italian Kitchen...

...until that Saturday in June, 2015. While working in the back corner, he noticed a new waitress grabbing bread and soup for her tables. She had chin-length black hair, large dark eyes and a smile full of braces. He had never seen her before.

"That must be the cute new girl mom was telling me about."

There was an endlessly growing pile of dishes stacking up, but he wanted nothing more than to find the opportunity to open a conversation with the new girl.

He'd figure it out eventually when the opportunity came walking around the corner, catching him off guard. He wondered if he blew his chances when she spun on her heels and headed for the front waitressing station.

She didn't come back for the rest of the night, but Martin felt the spark and knew he had to find a way to see her again.

He did, and the rest is history!

*Thank you to our moms and to Nonna's Italian Kitchen for inadvertently setting up the one in a million chance that we would cross paths with our future spouses!*

S&M

Our Wedding

2:00 PM–3:00 PM

Ceremony

4:30 PM–5:30 PM

Cocktail Hour

5:30 PM–11:00 PM

Reception