Seventeen years before Laurie Weil and David Greenberg would marry, friends at summer camp introduced the two, thinking they would make a good match and could perhaps even be soul mates. Their suspicions certainly proved true. After being summer camp sweethearts, Laurie and David remained good friends, saw each other frequently, and talked continuously over the next years. Their relationship remained strong, even though college and career would take them to far-away parts of the state. The couple somehow knew they would someday be in the right place at the right time for summer camp dreams to come true.

Their ceremony and reception, both held at the Empire Polo Club’s gorgeous Rose Garden and Pavilion, captured the spirit of Laurie and David’s fateful first encounter at Camp Swig. Longtime friend and fellow Swig camper Rabbi Neal Schuster performed the ceremony, and songs sung at camp lent the ceremony a poignant musical backdrop. The setting and grounds were vivid and awash in color.

The bright green grass of the polo field’s opening weekend of the season and the vibrant hues of the rose garden’s newly blossoming buds were beautiful compliments to the wedding’s palette of silver and pink. Cascading rose topiaries and tight pink rose centerpieces graced the tables, and guests were each treated to a uniquely etched crystal vase, filled with a single pink rose and organza silver ribbon. The silver tones of the menu cards, the lavish floor-length tablecloths and the Chiavari chairs looked stunning against the evening’s full moon, which was made all the more special by coinciding with a lunar eclipse.

In this dreamy setting, the couple exchanged vows, which they themselves composed and which reflected their seventeen years of friendship and love. Laurie’s father added a touching moment to the day by singing to his daughter “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof as he welcomed all the guests with a champagne toast.

The following formal reception featured an elegant four-course plated dinner, which included a duo plate of garlic rosemary spiced tenderloin and pecan-crusted halibut with a citrus-butter glaze. For their ceremonial cake and individual two-tiered wedding cakes for all of the guests, the couple chose a dual- flavored creation, with one layer of chocolate flourless cake and chocolate mousse and the other layer of almond marzipan. The cake was topped with several decorative pink roses for color. For their Grand Entrance as husband and wife, the newlyweds selected “Summer Lovin’” from Grease, an apt tribute to the two’s initial summer camp romance.

The reception ended with guests gathering outside the pavilion around a big fire pit, where beneath a vibrant full moon friends shared in making their favorite camp s’mores and swapping stories from camp days. It was a fitting culmination for a very personal ceremony and reception that symbolized the close bond Laurie and David have shared and wonderfully captured a sense of the summer camp days of yore. The couple’s camp friends were certainly correct seventeen years ago when they envisioned the potential of the two together.