Shelby Ebert and Adam Moser are a New York City couple whose Saturday wedding has been disrupted by Hurricane Sandy. Ebert, 29, a development officer and event planner at a non-profit organization, and Moser, 30, a defense attorney, had planned to tie the knot Nov. 3 on Long Island in a black tie affair. The couple's wedding venue is still standing and they plan to go through with their nuptials, but things will not be going according to plan. Here, Ebert tells their story to HuffPost Weddings' Stephanie Hallett.
Adam and I met about four years ago. My maid of honor, who has been my best friend since we were three, introduced the two of us. Her grandfather had passed away and [Adam and I] were both paying a shiva call at the same time. I was training for the New York City marathon with a group that raises money for blood cancer and Adam had just started training for his very first marathon too. We were talking about the experience, and what we had in common -- his sister is a childhood leukemia survivor and I lost a friend to leukemia when I was in high school -- so we bonded over a couple of different things. I actually ended up running his first marathon with him because his training partner screwed up her knee; we crossed the finish line and we've been doing these things together ever since. In fact, we'll be running the New York City marathon on our one-year wedding anniversary [next year].
Last summer, we were busy almost every single weekend [by that time we were living together]. Adam basically forced me to block out one free weekend and said we would make dinner together. As I was walking up the stairs to our apartment, I smelled a really strong scent. It was right after Hurricane Irene and we had bought a lot of candles, so I assumed he had burnt dinner and had lit some to get rid of the smell. Actually, he had created a trail of scented candles and my favorite candy into our apartment. The door to our bedroom was closed. When I opened it he was there on one knee, wearing a suit, with a diamond ring, and he said, “will you marry me?” We wound up going to Le Bernardin for dinner, and then the following morning we woke up and he told me to pack a bag. From there, he whisked me away to the Hamptons, and we stayed at this incredible bed and breakfast. The next day we went to this butterfly conservatory. The friend who passed away in high school is somebody who I've always spoken about being in my bridal party and her favorite thing was butterflies, so we went there because we wanted to feel like she was part of it. On the last night of the trip, we walked into a restaurant and both of our families were there waiting for us -- all of the nieces and nephews and cousins. Every single minute of the trip I was smiling, I couldn't sleep because I was so happy. It was truly the greatest weekend of my life.
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