Back in the summer of 1994, two Brooklyn girls -- Jennifer Gifford and her sister Vanessa -- were visiting their mother in St. Petersburg, Florida. One night, while trying to wrangle their way into a nightclub (both were underage), two cute guys helped sneak the young ladies inside. "They proceeded to make fun of our New York accents the entire night in a feeble attempt to hit on us," remembers Jennifer, an aspiring hair stylist. "But I guess it worked." One of the guys, Joe Leonard, was to become her future husband.
THE BRIDE Jennifer Gifford
THE GROOM Joe Leonard
THE DATE October 27
It took a while for things to come together. Jennifer was attending college all the way in New York. By the following May, Jennifer was so in love that she "packed up and moved to Florida to be with him." After Joe, a photo lab technician and skateboard photographer, proposed in 2000, they began to plan the wedding right away.
-- Amy Elliott