When Christine Gennaro, an account director at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, met Brian Meberg, a manager at Deloitte and Touche, their freshman year at Villanova, she tried to set him up with one of her friends. Plans quickly changed and Christine and Brian began seeing each other like secret lovers from a daytime soap opera. Flash forward eight years to December 2006, and Brian was dropping to one knee at Rockefeller Center and proposing to Christine in front of the Christmas tree as a circle of chanting tourists formed around them. “We’ve been inseparable since freshman year. We truly are better together,” says Christine.

In fact, Christine and Brian chose “Better Together” as the theme of their storybook wedding on June 27, 2008. The couple were married at Our Lady of the Lake Church in Verona, and the reception took place at the Pleasantdale Chateau, a private French Normandy-style mansion in West Orange. Custom artwork was created with a C and B monogram, which was woven throughout the evening.

Nine bridesmaids donned purple strapless dresses and full-length bubble skirts, while ten groomsmen were outfitted in black tuxedos and white shirts, purple ties and vests, and purple calla lilies as boutonnières. The bridesmaids carried lovely bouquets of purple calla lilies, roses, and viburnum.

Christine wore a strapless fitted gown from Priscilla of Boston, whose gorgeous embroidery and beading inspired the creation of the couple’s signature monogram. She carried a bouquet of cymbidium orchids, white calla lilies, peonies, and roses, which was wrapped with her grandmother’s rosary beads.

Two hundred guests were treated to a fusion of Christine’s and Brian’s favorite things. Christine loves purple while Brian is a blue boy, hence the mojito bar featured a purple Christini and a blue Briantini. Dinner included Christine’s choice of sautéed halibut with garlic poached mussels alongside Brian’s pick of roasted filet mignon with portobello mushroom, vegetable fricassee, caramelized shallot whipped potatoes, and cabernet sauce. The wedding cake was a white cake (his fav) with hazelnut filling (her fav). Each tier featured a different buttercream frosting with their signature monogram scrolled on the masterpiece. Christine surprised Brian with a Villanova basketball-themed groom’s cake. The cake itself was in the shape of a basketball court and had a full-size carved ball made of cake on top. Guests also enjoyed assorted pastries, petit fours, chocolate-dipped strawberries, and chocolate truffles.