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PrintJennifer Sciantarelli & Russell Desmarais
Jennifer Sciantarelli’s schedule is hectic as BalletMet’s communications manager, but on Oct. 15 she took a break from work to say “I do” to Russell Desmarais.
The ceremony and reception took place at Castle Hill Winery in Versailles, Kentucky, just outside of Lexington, in front of 70 guests. Not only is Lexington the bride’s hometown, but it’s also where she met her future husband five years ago.
As cliché as it seems, she says, they met at a wedding. Although Sciantarelli admits she thought Desmarais was “incredibly handsome and kind” upon their introduction, she didn’t consider the possibility of a relationship because he lived in Austin, Texas, at the time.
She says she took a leap of faith a few months later by calling him when she thought she might be attending a seminar in Austin. Although she did not end up going to the conference, the couple began to talk on the phone and exchange e-mails. Several months later, Sciantarelli flew to Austin to meet Desmarais. They started to date long distance and, in March 2007, Desmarais relocated to Columbus to be close to his future wife.
When he proposed in June 2009, the couple was vacationing in Kauai, Hawaii. “Russell always teases me, because when I tell this story, I talk about being on top of a cliff and him proposing. I had two options: Jump or say yes. He hates it when I say that,” she says, laughing. (Thankfully, she said yes.)
The wedding was planned to coincide with the fall race at Keeneland, a popular horse racing venue in Lexington. The wedding was Friday evening and Sciantarelli says that after a quick Saturday brunch, the couple and some of their guests headed off to the racetrack. “It’s such an iconic piece of Kentucky. You think of horse races, basketball and bourbon,” she says.
Sciantarelli recalls two of her favorite memories from her big day: Watching guests arrive while hiding behind strategically placed boxes of wine and stealing away for a few moments with her husband. (They forgot cups, so they just drank champagne from the bottle.) And one moment that Sciantarelli laughs about is when her husband winced as she put his ring on during the ceremony. She found out afterward that he had smashed his finger an hour earlier. “We eventually managed to get his ring off that night, but he couldn’t put it back on for more than a week,” she says.
Even after several years together, the bride says they have not forgotten what brought them together. “Our relationship started on the phone, so, obviously, our conversations in the beginning were the most important piece of the puzzle . . . and they still are.”
They reside in Columbus following a honeymoon to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
