Posted on 04/30/2003 11:25:48 AM PDT by tdadams
It was a foolhardy stunt.
But you’ve got to hand it to Nate Moquin: It took a lot of guts.
Nate dared to make a joke out of a ritual that the female of our species holds sacred: the wedding.
He pulled it off too. And after cooling off for a few weeks, his bride-to-be, Sarah Palmer, even is starting to laugh about it.
Nate and Sarah still are planning to get married May 10 in Chippewa Falls, where they live. That’s assuming Nate is able to refrain from pulling pranks for a few more weeks.
The whole thing started with a pair of super-thick eyeglasses that Nate, a salesman, had picked up.
The glasses magnify the wearer’s eyes so much that “anyone can look like a goofball with them,” Nate said. He liked to take them to parties and bars, where they were a big hit on the dance floor.
When Nate and Sarah, both 26, went to a studio to get their wedding engagement photos taken, Nate brought along the goofy glasses and another silly pair. He talked Sarah into wearing the glasses for one photo.
When they got the proofs back, Nate wanted to order a copy of the goofy photo, but Sarah said no.
So they picked out a nice photo.
Later Sarah gave Nate an envelope to drop off at the Leader-Telegram. It contained their engagement announcement and a copy of the nice photo, to be published in the engagement announcements.
Nate wanted something different
But Nate didn’t go right to the Leader-Telegram office. He went to the photographer and bought a copy of the goofy photo. Then he opened the envelope, put in the goofy photo, and took out the nice photo.
Then he went to the Leader-Telegram office and dropped off the envelope, thinking he was pretty funny.
The key question: What was he thinking? He thought engagement photos in the newspaper always looked the same, he said. He wanted to do something different.
“I was nervous,” Nate said. “I usually get away with a lot, but I knew this was walking a fine line. This was serious wedding stuff.”
He watched for a reaction from the woman who accepted the form at the Leader-Telegram, but she kept a straight face.
Later that week, the photo was passed around among a few Leader-Telegram staffers. We tried to determine whether it was a joke photo, or if this couple had a mutual attraction based on poor eyesight.
But you don’t ask a woman if she’s pregnant unless you’re absolutely sure. On the same principle, we decided not to call the couple to ask if they really looked that goofy. The photo was published.
Fast forward to Sunday morning. Sarah, who hadn’t seen the newspaper, started calling friends to tell them her engagement picture was in the paper.
“My friend Joanie looked it up when she was on the phone with me,” Sarah said. “She said, ‘ooohhh, you’re going to kill him.’ ”
And indeed, Sarah did make Nate suffer for a while.
“I was mortified. Mor-ti-fied,” she said, drawing out the word. “He had no idea I was going to react that bad.”
Even Jay Leno thinks it’s funny
When Sarah went to work Monday -- she is a correctional officer at the Stanley prison -- her co-workers joked that they’d post the picture on the bulletin board.
Needless to say, Nate presented her with a big bouquet of flowers and an apology card when she got home from work.
Luckily, the relationship endured the storm. The wedding was never endangered, Nate and Sarah said, although they joked to friends that it was.
After a while, Sarah started to laugh about it, especially after she published the nice picture and engagement notice in the Leader-Telegram later. She had to purchase an ad for it.
“I went in and put the regular one in, and the girls at the L-T were laughing,” she said. “I kind of warmed up to it.”
One other surprise awaited: The photograph made an appearance on nationwide television.
On the Tonight Show, host Jay Leno showed the photograph and engagement notice, which notes that Nate is a licensed pilot.
“Oh my God, the pilot dropped his glasses -- Mayday! Mayday!” Leno cracked.
When a repeat of the show ran the next week, Sarah and Nate taped it. They’ll probably show the tape at their wedding reception.
“I just think it’s something to tell the grandkids,” Sarah said.
And Nate learned something too. When I asked him for permission to publish the goofy photo in the Leader-Telegram again, he said yes.
Then he paused. “Uh, you better check with Sarah.”
Now, this is goofy.
Elaine: Why?
Newman: To prevent an ambush.
Kramer: Yeah, so now I can peek to see if anyone is waiting to jack me with a sock full of pennies.
AT least, until one or the other is dead...
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