Isn't It RorrliTltic?

A fairy tale comes to life in an easily elegant at-home wedding.

L

By Lynne Konstantin
Photography by
Laurie Tennent

on Rapp has mar-
ried the man of her
dreams. And she
wasn't even looking
for him.
When her
20-year-marriage
came to an end,
Rapp grabbed her 13-year-old
daughter and hopped a plane
from Malibu. "I just wanted to
come home," says the Michigan
native. She bought a house in
Birmingham and had barely
settled in before friends started
trying to fix her up.
"I really wasn't thinking
about it," Rapp says. "I thought,
`I'd love to find a nice person,
but it wasn't a priority"'
Then she went on a blind
date with Dr. Lawrence Rapp,
a neurosurgeon at St. Joseph
Mercy Oakland with two
almost-adult children of his
own. He was kind. He was old-
fashioned (bringing her two
dozen red roses on Sweetest
Day), he was handsome, he was
brilliant (he entered college at
age 16) — and she was hooked.
They began looking for a
house together and found a
breezy transitional contempo-
rary home on Wing Lake, the
house of both of their dreams.
"It's very hard to meet someone
at this age, let alone fall in love
and have it be perfect. But it
happened," Rapp says.
"On moving day, I was in
sweats and totally exhausted,"
says Rapp. "He came home
with carry-out from Andiamo,
lit some candles and got down
on one knee. I was thinking,
Van I just comb my hair first?'
And he said, 'I don't want to
wait:"
With the help of event
planner Dawn Owen, Rapp
planned an exquisite at-home
wedding for 75 guests in just
three months. "I thought, 'I'm
a type-A; I can pull it off.' And
every step just fell into place. It
really was magical." RT

38 February 2014

1 RD THREAD

Clockwise from top left: Wrapped in the groom's tallis, the couple stands under a grand chandelier suspended from the oversized chuppah,
which is draped in sheaths of billowing fabric. The bride prepares to walk down the aisle. Larry adjusts his yarmulke before the ceremony
begins; staying at Birmingham's Townsend Hotel the night before the wedding, Lori arranged to send the watch, a wedding gift to her groom,
the morning of the wedding. After the festivities ended, the couple relaxed with a glass of champagne beside the outdoor fireplace, and Larry
presented Lori with a diamond tennis necklace. The couple gathers in the home's library to sign the ketubah, which was displayed during the
ceremony. For the indoor reception, Owen created the clean-lined glamour of 1940s Hollywood, warmed up with lots of texture, intimate seat-
ing areas and a flow of food stations. Sliding glass doors were left open throughout the home to enhance the open and breezy aesthetic — and
encourage guests to stroll and mingle.

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