Amy Lares & John Mangan Wedding – April 6, 2013 – Woodsgate

Woodsgate Pocono Wedding Venue

Amy and I met through Match.com. At the time, I just moved down to south Jersey for my job to a little condo on the river. Once the excitement of moving so far from where I grew up floated away, I realized that it was very hard to meet new people and that finding love was next to impossible, so I signed up for match.

About the same time, Amy’s friends convinced her to sign up at match as well because she was so busy with work, living on her own and not having any luck finding anyone that suited her.

As I was about ready to cancel my account, I noticed this beautiful girl who kept viewing my profile but not sending me any messages. She lived in Queens, which I considered a little too far, but something compelled me to write my last message to her and just see what happened.

We decided to meet at a TGIF Fridays in Staten Island March 2011. Before meeting her, I figured that given my luck till then this would be a short hello and that would be it. Except once I saw her standing outside, the way she smiled when she saw me, I suddenly changed all my thinking and knew that I would definitely be seeing her after the first date again.

After our second date, Amy told her best friend that I was the guy she was going to marry and her friend told her not to get ahead of herself.

In May 2012, I proposed to Amy in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris and we were married the following spring, on April 6th 2013.

I attended two weddings at the Stroudsmoor, one with Amy, so when we needed to pick a place we knew exactly where we wanted to be married – in the Woodland Chapel at Woodsgate on the grounds of Stroudsmoor Country Inn. Everyone we encountered had nothing but good things to say about the Inn, and after we met with a Stroudsmoor Planner, the deal was sealed. She had a way of making people feel comforted and at ease. Almost like we were family. It was an easy choice!