Legal Eagle Wedding Watch 4.26: Irish I-Dos

There are certain phrases you don’t expect to encounter in the same wedding announcement. “U2’s The Edge” and “associate counsel to President George W. Bush” probably fit that bill. And yet one of this week’s weddings manages just that curious alchemy, and more.

Here are this week’s finalists:

1. Robyn Neblett and Jermaine Fanfair

2. Elaine Stuart and Nirav Shah

3. Leslie Fahrenkopf and Thomas Foley

Get all the details on these couples, after the jump.


1. Robyn Neblett and Jermaine Fanfair

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The Case:

– This is a doctor-lawyer pairing, something we don’t see much of in this space, oddly enough. The lovely bride graduated from Brown and has an MD from NYU and a master’s in public health from Johns Hopkins, where she’s currently a clinical fellow in internal medicine.

– The groom graduated from Wesleyan University and has a law degree from Howard. He works as an associate in the Washington office of Henrichsen Siegel, a law firm based in Jacksonville.

The Case Against:

– Henrichsen Siegel has a slick website (including a section in Chinese) and boasts of having offices in DC, New York, Jacksonville, and “the Nashville, Tennessee metro area.” Yet it appears to employ a total of twelve attorneys, for an average of three per office.

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2. Elaine Stuart and Nirav Shah

(Buy them a wok.)

The Case:

– This couple met as Georgetown juniors studying abroad in Dublin, making them the first recorded case of a study-abroad hookup surviving stateside re-entry.

– Elaine graduated magna and is now is senior associate features and travel editor at Condé Nast’s Modern Bride. Nirav graduated cum laude, scored a JD from NYU, and is now an associate in Kirkland’s New York office.

The Case Against:

– Wedding magazines always mine their editors’ weddings for material, so look for a gushing multicultural spread on this one in the next issue of Modern Bride — if Condé Nast hasn’t shut it down by then.

3. Leslie Fahrenkopf and Thomas Foley

(Buy them a soup bowl.)

The Case:

– Holy crap, where do we begin? She’s Yale-UVA (JD); he’s Harvard-Harvard (MBA). She’s a former associate counsel to President George W. Bush; he’s a wealthy businessman who was recently Bush’s ambassador to Ireland. She’s 41; he’s 57.

– The “lavish” nuptial festivities, which took place in Ireland, were attended by 350 guests, including U2’s The Edge and Larry Mullen.

– A profile of the ambassador in the Irish press — one that embarrasses the subject only slightly less than the reporter — describes the groom thusly:

Tom Foley is a lean, handsome man of 57 with a good head of hair and fine American teeth, in a navy suit with the nipped-in waist that men of a certain age who manage to stay in shape tend to favour, the trousers held up with one of those fancy Kieselstein cowboy-style belts with the real silver buckles that says ‘I may have to wear a suit for work but underneath it all I’m a macho guy who’d be happier out on the ranch doing some real work’.

The Case Against:

– He’s old . . . like, old for the earth. And it’s his second marriage, natch. But she’s 41 and a lawyer, not a cocktail waitress, so it’s respectable.

– Their china is oh-so-expensive ($245 for each bread-and-butter plate), but it’s also achingly gorgeous. And it’s nice to see that even multi-millionaires appreciate the $38 glass bowl set from Williams-Sonoma.

The Verdict:

– It’s been a dismal week for Republicans, but the Bushies and their fine American teeth storm back to win this contest in a beat-down. Go maire tu do shaol ur, Team Fahrenkopf-Foley!