Simple Elegance Sums Up This Black-Tie Barn Wedding

Sparks didn’t exactly fly when Alanna McManus, a college freshman, first spotted Craig Weiss, a junior, across the dining hall at the University of Richmond in Virginia in 2003. “I didn’t like his shoes!” she laughs. And, when the two got reacquainted years later at an alumni event in New York City, where both had moved, Alanna had a boyfriend. Recalls Craig, “I told our mutual friend, ‘Make sure I’m the first e-mail if Alanna’s ever single.’” In 2007, after the friend (and future bridesmaid) hit send, the romance ignited. A first kiss on a Friday night date led to tickets to the U.S. Open that Sunday. “After that, it was official,” says Craig, a real estate developer.

After a Catholic mass at a historic stone church in New Jersey, the newlyweds and their 180 guests drove right across the Delaware River to a restored barn in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where the bride grew up. “We wanted it to be a special event for people, but still fun and laid-back, because that’s us,” says Alanna of the black-tie affair.