
The official wedding photos of Jon and Angel Van Wieren shot at The Local's photo booth. Photo courtesy: Grant Henry
We’ve all encountered those self-centered couples who make you waste an entire weekend, drive 500 miles and spend $2,000 on ugly outfits you’ll never wear again, all in order to attend their narcissistic nuptials.
Jon Van Wieren and Angel Jacobs are not that couple.
When the Atlanta stock broker and attorney decided to get hitched Monday afternoon, they sent out a text message asking friends to meet them at The Local on Ponce de Leon Avenue.
Then, the groom, the son of retired Braves baseball broadcaster Pete Van Wieren, picked up the phone to invite his parents.
And early Monday evening in front of a judge and a handful of friends, Van Wieren and Jacobs said their “I dos” as the wait staff stood a few feet away at the bar, placing their drink orders.
For years, The Local bartender Grant Henry has watched the couple’s courtship from their signature seats at the end of his bar where they met.
That’s where, the bride and groom greeted well-wishers Monday night as they toasted with a Sweetwater 420 Pale Ale draft and a glass of white wine. The newlyweds ordered wings for supper since the groom’s parents had never partaken of The Local’s signature spicy poultry parts previously.
“I got to see their relationship come full circle,” Henry told Buzz Tuesday. “It was just cool to see a couple take such a low-key, loving approach to a wedding without all the stress and all the hoopla. Plus, Mondays are usually real slow. I had a record night for tips!”
So Henry himself sprang for the couple’s official wedding photos inside The Local’s $3 photo booth and plucked some blooms from the hanging baskets swinging outside the bar for the couple’s table. Henry, who creates art around town under the moniker Sister Louisa, also drew the couple’s “Just Now Married” sign.
Still, Henry held firm on the groom’s nightly allowance of a trio of Drive By Truckers songs played on the bar’s jukebox.
Explained Henry: “Any more than three and it gets downright annoying.”
9 comments Add your comment
Grant Henry
September 15th, 2009
4:44 pm
The little sign they are holding is on cash register paper! Also, We at The Local had no (DAMN) notice of the wedding. If we had, we would have at least cleaned the old popcorn out of the sofas and all. My toast to them was “MAY YOUR MARRIAGE BE AS REAL AS YOUR WEDDING!”
Grant Henry aka Sister Louisa » Blog Archive » MATRIMONIOUS MONDAYS at THE LOCAL
September 15th, 2009
4:51 pm
[...] http://blogs.ajc.com/peachbuzz/2009/09/15/the-local-hosts-a-text-message-marriage/ Great story in the AJC, PEACH BUZZ, about a wedding that happened last night at The Local. [...]
Pat Still
September 15th, 2009
8:39 pm
Congratulations Jon and Angela! Do I dare ask where you will go on your honeymoon?
Jason
September 15th, 2009
10:34 pm
Honeymoon? Well the Clermont is just across the street…
Ted Parrish
September 16th, 2009
9:09 am
Congrats Jon and Angela!!!
Ruth and Fred
September 16th, 2009
1:27 pm
So happy for both of you. Wish we could have been there. Best of luck.
Cris Gray
September 16th, 2009
4:41 pm
Congratulations, Jon and Angela!!!
Kelly-Lynne Scalice
September 17th, 2009
10:40 am
May your marriage be as easy and refreshing as an ice cold brew goes down on a summer day! Congratulations!
Billy Ray Valentine
September 21st, 2009
2:51 pm
Congrats guys! I was gonna’ come, but I went to The Local and got drunk and totally missed it!!