Sunday Patriot News June 22, 2003 Living Section
Wealth of Weddings

Sharon Marquart began performing wedding ceremonies in 1996 - she officiated one ceremony the entire year.

On a recent Saturday, the nondenominational minister performed five weddings. She traveled nearly 100 miles, bouncing from ceremony to ceremony. It must be wedding season.

"Although I book weddings from midnight on New Year's Eve through the year to Christmas Day, my wedding 'season' begins mid May till mid July." Marquart said.

Clockwise from above the Rev. Sharon Marquart signs papers before performing the marriage ceremony for Holly DeSanto and David Murren in the gazebo at the lake in Boiling Springs.

"The most weddings I have performed in one weekend is 10 (eight in one day). I have four to six weddings booked every weekend until mid July." Marquart clearly is a busy woman.

On this particular Saturday, Marquart not only traveled hither and yon but she did it all with a broken wrist. She had to rely on a friend to chauffer her to each ceremony. Marquart who was ordained by Universal Life Church, left her home in Lower Allen Twp. about 10:30 a.m. and headed to Thornwald Park, Carlisle. The ceremony involved just 10 guest and was booked and put together in less than a week.

The Rev. Sharon Marquart pronounces Jamie Fleming and Kevinn Lanier husband and wife. This was the second of the five weddings that Marquart a nondenominational minister performed on a recent Saturday.

The second wedding, at 1 p.m., had originally been scheduled at Pheasant Ridge Bed & Breakfast, Carlisle. But because of inclement weather, Kevinn Lanier and Jamie Fleming moved their formal ceremony with 15 attendants to Church Hill Hall, Enola. The 100-plus guest were phoned that morning about the location change.

The Rev. Sharon Marquart folds her stole after a wedding. "I have such a rewarding job" she says.

Then for Marquart, it was back onto Interstate 81 and off to Boiling Springs for the 2 p.m. wedding of David Murren and Holly DeSanto. The family ceremony took place inside a gazebo at Children's Lake.

Marquart then headed north to Felicita in Middle Paxton Twp. For the 3:30 p.m. ceremony uniting Patrick Janet and Andi Fitzpatrick.

Andi Fitzpatrick talks to Marquart before her ceremony held at Felicita.

"Patrick is originally from France, Andi from Mechanicsburg," Marquart said. "The couple currently live in Washington, D.C., and booked me and communicated with me through my Web site and one phone consultation." The wedding was to take place in the gardens but was moved to a room at the inn because of the weather. "It was a simple, elegant and chic ceremony with 45 guest," Marquart said.

After that, Marquart and McCutchan had a hour to catch a quick dinner at the Olive Garden in Silver Spring Twp. Before heading to her final appointment of the day at 6 p.m. in Plainfield. There, Richard Eatough III and Krista Linsenbach were married before 25 guest in the bride's family home.

Marquart signs the marriage certificate.

That wedding was also scheduled for outdoors but moved into the living room. The bride, who owns a vintage clothing store in Carlisle, wore her mother's wedding dress from the 1970's. Marquart arrived home at 7:30 p.m., "a little weary from the traveling but fulfilled because I have such a rewarding job. It is a privilege to celebrate the love of two people and to share in joining them together in marriage."