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PrintGeoff Sharp & Nikki Fetingas
Cameron Sharp
Geoff Sharp and Nikki Fetingas, who were married Aug. 21, met six years ago on a blind date at Stauf’s in Crosswoods. Although this location is now closed, that didn’t stop Sharp from plotting a surprise proposal at the site of their first meeting. And the proposal isn’t the only surprise Sharp had planned for Fetingas. For a year, he planned the entire wedding before his bride even accepted his proposal.
Last fall, Sharp started to work with a friend on how to fly family and friends to New Smyrna Beach, Florida, for a weekend wedding without the bride’s knowledge. Sharp made a DVD invitation in which he was dressed in disguise as “Agent Stauf,” instructing guests they were all “secret agents” on a mission to surprise Fetingas.
Sharp proposed on Aug. 18, just three days before the scheduled nuptials. Luckily, Fetingas accepted. (Sharp’s brother, Cameron, a photographer, was stationed on a nearby rooftop to capture the scene, and Sharp also had a tiny camera hidden in his shirt.) In fact, even after the proposal, Fetingas still thought she and Sharp were headed to New Jersey to visit friends until he revealed part of the surprise en route to the next destination: Saks Fifth Avenue at Polaris. Sharp told his bride-to-be they were eloping to Florida. He arranged for her to have a personal shopper who was instructed to help her find a wedding dress fit for the beach, an outfit for traveling, an ensemble for dining al fresco, a “big girl bag,” as Fetingas calls her designer purses, and “Sex and the City” shoes. The shopper led Fetingas to a room filled with outfits . . . and her mother and three friends.
When Fetingas left Saks, she says she still thought she would be eloping without family and friends. “My Christian mother, who attends church three times a week, lied to me at the store, saying, ‘Can you call me when you get to wherever you’re going?’ Not to mention lying to me for the previous three months directly to my face,” says Fetingas, laughing.
The couple arrived in Florida the next morning, along with their guests, who flew a different airline to ensure Fetingas didn’t see any familiar faces at the airport. Sharp had a few hours to kill before the evening surprise party, so he rented a Mustang convertible, and they toured a famous garden (Fetingas owns At Home Landscaping) and visited the nearby Daytona International Speedway before arriving at Chases on the Beach, where more than 30 guests were assembled, each donning “Operation Accomplished” T-shirts.
When Fetingas walked into the room, “She saw my dad first; he was filming in the corner,” Sharp says. “I said to her, ‘You didn’t think I’d let you do this alone, did you?’ ” The couple was married by a friend Saturday—the same friend who had been working with Sharp for a year and became ordained for the event.
So, what does the bride think about her surprise wedding weekend? “Everything has been so surreal. I’m still shocked. But that moment when I saw everyone, I’ve never experienced anything like that,” she says.
Taylor Swope is an assistant editor at Columbus Monthly.
