Alexandra Willkie and Zachary Pasanen: A Romantic, and Risky, Dance Move(0)

Alexandra Elizabeth Willkie, a daughter of Carlotta Fendig Willkie and Wendell Lewis Willkie II of Darien, Conn., is to be married Sept. 4 to Zachary Anton Pasanen, the son of Susan Anton Pasanen and Dr. Wayne Edward Pasanen of North Andover, Mass. The Rev. Richard Pike, an Episcopal priest, is to officiate at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, N.Y.

The bride, 27, will take her husband’s name. She is an associate director at Jack Tilton Gallery, an art gallery in New York. She graduated cum laude from Vanderbilt with two bachelor’s degrees, one in the history of art, and the other in human and organizational development.

Her father, who works in New York, is of counsel to the Washington law firm Steptoe & Johnson. The bride is a paternal great-granddaughter of Wendell Willkie, the 1940 Republican presidential nominee.

Images: bridesmaids dresses brisbane

The groom, 33, is a vice president specializing in United States commercial real estate investments for W.P. Carey, a real estate investment firm in New York. He graduated cum laude from Brown.

His mother is a founder of Bellecore, a Boston-based manufacturer of beauty, fitness and wellness products. His father, a former chief of emergency medicine and the medical director at Lowell General Hospital, is the president of the Merrimack Valley Addiction Service in Lowell, Mass., which treats addiction disorders.

The couple first got to know each other at the Standard Hotel in New York in July 2013, though they were already aware of each other, having crossed paths twice in the previous three months while bouncing around the city with mutual friends.

“I saw him once at a restaurant and another time at a house party, and he seemed like such an energetic and charismatic guy,” Ms. Willkie said of Mr. Pasanen.

Mr. Pasanen said: “She was gorgeous, that much I knew. We had been sort of quickly introduced, but we were never in a situation where we had a moment to sit down and talk.”

That moment arrived at the Standard, where a mutual friend reintroduced Ms. Willkie to Mr. Pasanen.

They spoke for about an hour, she said, before Mr. Pasanen took her to a nearby restaurant, with several of their mutual friends in tow. “My adrenaline was pumping the moment she sat next to me,” he said. “Although we were with other friends, she was never more than an arm’s length away from me the entire night. It was electric right from the start.”

During dinner, Mr. Pasanen asked Ms. Willkie to slow-dance to a French jazz number, and somewhere mid-dance, he both surprised and delighted her with what she described as a “totally unexpected, totally exhilarating dip.”

“It was very romantic,” Ms. Willkie said.“And very risky,” he said. “Looking back, I can’t believe I did that, but I just had the urge to pull her closer to me. I’m not the most accomplished dancer, so maybe it was ego or bravado that gave me the courage to dip her.

“When I saw that it had worked out, I quickly sat down with her again,” he said. “I didn’t want to press my luck.”

Twelve hours after they wished each other a good night, Ms. Willkie and Mr. Pasanen, who worked across the street from each other at that time, were seated next to each other again sharing lunch — and more conversation — at a Midtown restaurant.

“I loved everything about him, including his sense of humor and the genuine curiosity he had about me, my career and my family,” Ms. Willkie said. “He was so engaging, and that’s what made it so comfortable to be around him.”

They continued to see each other, day after day, and were soon inseparable.“We never ran out of things to say to one another, which surprised me at first,” Mr. Pasanen said. “At first, I expected a girl who was that attractive and intelligent to have a different kind of air about her, but she was so down to earth and approachable from the moment she sat next to me, it was as if we had known each other all of our lives.”

See more at bridesmaids dresses perth