Blustery conditions altered the wedding plans for Boca Grande residents Mary Anne Malec and Lew Hastings but couldn't change the fairytale ending of a romance that became the first 2010 wedding on Gasparilla Island.
"The frigid temperatures forced us to change our plans for a beachfront wedding and move the ceremony indoors into the Amory Chapel," said Lew Hastings. "We had planned a simple beach ceremony with a barbecue after in the Amory Chapel but Mother Nature decided we should alter those plans with a windy 45-degree day in Boca Grande so, at the last minute, our family and friends helped us change the dinner menu, cook the food and put the chapel through three different settings to accommodate a wedding, a cocktail hour and a dinner."
Hastings said their friends, Terry and Trish Meiser, worked all weekend to make that day a success.
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Newlywed Mary Anne Hastings smooches new husband Lew Hastings at their Jan. 10 wedding in Amory Chapel.
The bride works for the Boca Grande Health Clinic Foundation and the grooom is employed as a manager in the Fort Myers Barnes and Noble outlet.
The newlyweds once lived next door from the age of 12 in Staten Island, N.Y., where they attended high school together. The apartments they lived in were separated by one wall.
"Banging on that wall was used as a means of communication between Mary Anne's brother, John, and Lew to let each other know that the other was home from school," the newlyweds wrote in their wedding invitation. "It usually served as a message: Come outside, or at least, come on over."
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The bride works for the Boca Grande Health Clinic Foundation and the grooom is employed as a manager in the Fort Myers Barnes and Noble outlet.
Lew said he had a teenage crush on Mary Anne but never told her. John knew about his friend's feelings and it became a running joke between the three of them as they played sports and attended concerts together.
The romance never had a chance as first Malec moved away, then Hastings did.
Twenty-seven years passed. And if Facebook had not been invented, they still might not be together.
Malec was living in Floirda when she found her former neighbor's name on a high school alumni page and sent him a message and friend request. The message was: "No way."
He responded from his home in New Jersey: "YES WAY!!!!"
After months of e-mails and phone chats they began to realize deeper feelings for each other. The romance also had a great silver lining for once-close families that had lost touch, he said.
"This was not only a wedding but a family reunion," Lew Hastings said.
The romance was reflected in the wedding invitation.
"Once they were finally together, they both felt that it seemed as though they were meant to be all along," the invitation said. "It was as if life was preparing them for this relationship and now this union. We are happy that you, the most important people in our lives, our friends and family, can share in this amazing story of fate, providence and happy endings."
Hastings said he realizes how lucky he is to have found his bride after more than a quarter century absence in each other's lives.
"I have never been happier in my life," he said.
As for the wind-blown wedding day, that's all good, too, he said.
"Despite the alternate settings we had a beautiful day full of memories and laughter and wouldn't change it for the world."
