Susan and Barry Wine had one of our favorite New York City restaurants, the Quilted Giraffe. Barry was a good friend of a good friend of mine -- he would pick us up in a large open car, a Stanley Steamer if memory serves, and deliver us to their beautiful restaurant with fantastic food.
They divorced after 26 years, and Susan recently married Robert Ransom. They are joint owners of Rivendell Winery and a couple of retail shops in the City. The ceremony was as innovative as the Quilted Giraffe used to be:
They honored Freya, the Norse goddess of love, by marrying on a Friday and chose late August for the early harvest season. They were handfast, that is, their wrists were bound with a cord by the Rev. Puja Thomson, a minister of the Healing Light Center Church, reflecting the ancient tradition of “tying the knot.’’
After they exchanged vows they jumped the broom in the African-American tradition and smashed a glass in the Hebrew tradition, they slipped on their rings and sipped mead, a honey wine made by the bride’s daughter and matron of honor, Winifred Abramson.
“You get older, you get wiser,” Ms. Wine said, explaining her multitraditional wedding. “You realize that life is about nature and has its own organization and not some political imprint.’’
“People in the wine business are very romantic,’’ said one guest, Phyllis Feder, the owner of Clinton Vineyards in Clinton Corners, N.Y. “There are people here who came to celebrate, to witness them today. This binds more than just two people.”
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Regards, Bob