Real Wedding: Page + Mac

Now here’s a groom who knows how to plan.

On Valentine’s Day 2008, Page Schmucker returned to the Doylestown home she shared with Mac Small to find a huge present sitting on the couch. The couple, who started dating a year after meeting through a mutual friend in 2005, had agreed not to exchange gifts—but when she opened the box, Page found there wasn’t a gift inside; it was another box, and a card telling her to open it on Easter. On Easter morning, she found another box and card instructing her to wait until Cinco de Mayo—the day the two had met—but on May 5th, she found the smallest box yet, with instructions to hold off until the fourth day of the couple’s long-planned August vacation in Tuscany. There, atop a hill overlooking the town of Montepulciano, Mac handed Page a card that said, “Take a deep breath. Look around. Everything’s about to change.” When she looked up, Mac was on bended knee, holding the last box.  

 For their early-fall nuptials, the couple knew a few things for sure. “We wanted a relaxed party,” says Page, “both for us planning it, and for our guests.” They eliminated any potentially stress-inducing details—such as those pesky seating charts—and designed a cocktail-party-style reception, with food stations and lots of dancing. Their venue, the New Hope Creole restaurant Marsha Brown, served Cajun and Italian treats that perfectly suited the couple’s love of good food, but that wasn’t even the best part: The restaurant is a converted church (above)—the one Page grew up attending, and the very one where her grandparents said their vows so many years ago. Along with cake, guests received truffles from Pierre’s Chocolates in New Hope for dessert—a treat Page’s family has always indulged in after a good meal.  

Oh, and that tricky groom? He struck again. “Mac surprised me with our honeymoon,” says Page. He even helped her pack for the unknown and kept mum until they were at the airport gate. After three days in Monte Carlo and a week-long cruise between France and Spain, Page’s sentiments aren’t surprising: “It was perfect.”

Photography by Sarah DiCicco