Shouldn’t most love stories begin with a bet? Something easy to bond over, encourages a little light flirting and teasing, not to mention it basically nails down the fact that Person A and Person B have a built in second interaction once the outcome occurs. Seems perfectly plausible to me (and clearly works like a charm) as I sit on the phone with Lauren and Brendan listening to them giggle over how their story all began. “If the Jets beat the Ravens, I get to take you to dinner,” said Brendan four years ago. “And if the Ravens beat the Jets, I get to take you to dinner,” said Lauren. I didn’t ask them who ended up winning that game, but the bottom line is that the two didsit down for their first official date over Thai food–Lauren’s pick–and truly, well, here we are today days before their wedding. But let’s back up a little further . . .
The initial meeting: Lauren and Brendan are both teachers at Parkland Magnet Middle School in Wheaton, which is categorized as a Title 1 School. Lauren is an art teacher and Brendan is a special education teacher, who works in the resource room helping students learn life skills in addition to assisting with the regular curriculum. Lauren and Brendan first noticed each other at a welcome party for the new teachers joining at the start of the school year (Lauren was returning but had been officially hired as a full time teacher and Brendan was brand new). Lauren remembers thinking Brendan was cute even though she was, “gung-ho about not dating anyone at work.” Fate had a different plan apparently as not only were Lauren and Brendan put on the same 7th grade team, but also were placed in the same focus group. They sat facing each other and both took note of matching claddagh rings with the hearts facing out (read: I’m single and looking to mingle – if only it were always that easy) . . . Lauren also remembered Brendan’s “intense” NY accent.Brendan hopped on the pursuit soon after, but Lauren managed to dodge him until the fateful bet she couldn’t refuse. I am sure Brendan was happy the game didn’t end in a tie . . .
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Lauren and Brendan dated two years before he proposed. During their courtship, the couple visited Lauren’s family’s beach house in Rehoboth Beach. Lauren told Brendan that this house was “the most magical place in the whole wide world.” Ding, ding, ding! Brendan made a special mental note–since their first visit together, he knew that when the time came he would propose at the beach house.
The perfect surprise proposal: It was early June 2013 when Lauren and Brendan went on a couple’s getaway weekend to the beach house to celebrate the end of the school year. They walked out to the beach, exactly 100 steps away from the house so “we could always know where our spot is when we come back,” Brendan recalls. Unbeknown to Lauren, waiting 100 paces away was an old wine bottle that Brendan had filled with a handwritten message on tea stained paper with burnt edges (for artistic effect), asking her to be his wife. As Lauren and Brendan were getting settled, Lauren spotted the bottle and actually started singing the song “Message in a Bottle” as she opened it. When she got to the last line, “Will you marry me?” and she looked up to Brendan on bended knee. The surprises didn’t end there: after convincing Lauren to retreat to the house for more pictures–she preferred to stay on the beach soaking up the moment–Lauren’s and Brendan’s parents jumped out as the newly engaged couple approached as a congratulatory surprise.
The soul-mate connection: Planning for the couple has been great, Lauren says, “we have done a great job, and we have each other’s backs for support. We make decisions together . . . we’re a team . . . solid communication when times are good and times are tough . . . that’s what marriage is.” Lauren and Brendan’s strong unity exists because they are good partners and have some experience already making hard decisions for themselves and their future life together. In August of 2007, Brendan was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma brain tumor. The tumor was wrapped around the part of his brain that allowed him to hear; Brendan was quickly scheduled for brain surgery one month later. Thankfully, Brendan hasn’t experienced any health relapse, but every two years, he and Lauren travel to NYU to get a MRI scan of his brain and wait two hours for the test results to tell them whether or not the tumor as returned. Sadly, this past summer Lauren was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease known as IGA Nephrology, which has left Lauren’s kidneys scarred and functioning at about 30%. She remembers being on steroids for a couple of months and the intense toll it took on her body, “I gained weight, had acne, but everyday Brendan said he couldn’t see it . . . I was gorgeous and that this was only temporary.” Lauren and Brendan lived through another scare earlier this year when doctors told Lauren the medicine she would need to take would also make having children extremely challenging. Luckily, after an exhaustive search for the best medical team to counsel her and her disease, Lauren was able to go on medicine that didn’t carry a pregnancy risk, and had the added bonus that it wasn’t chemotherapeutic so she wouldn’t lose her hair before her wedding. In lieu of wedding favors, Lauren and Brendan are donating money to a national kidney research program and brain tumor research program.
Despite all of their challenges, the couple find themselves a week away from their wedding day and they “couldn’t be in a better place about everything.” They feel so excited and blessed to be marrying one another in front of family and friends. The couple will wed at St. Mark Chapel in Catonsville then head to The Belvedere in Baltimore for the reception. Flanking the bride and groom will be five groomsmen, five bridesmaids and six bridal attendants. “We have a lot of cousins!” said Lauren. After marrying on October 18th, the couple will honeymoon in St. Lucia; they are really looking forward to that swim up bar. – Allie Rosenwasser
One in an occasional series on exceptional Baltimore couples. Baltimore Bride’s Hitched will run a second post on Lauren and Brendan after their wedding . . . stay tuned!
