Coffee Lovers Get Married At NJ Donut Shop
GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) -- There are caffeine-crazed coffee fanatics, and then there are Cliff Ranson and Elizabeth Fischer, the Williamstown couple who were married Tuesday at the Dunkin' Donuts on Route 42 South.
The pair tied the knot in the Sicklerville coffee shop surrounded by machines brewing their favorite beverage, trays of glazed doughnuts and mounds of Munchkins.
And they couldn't be happier.
Getting married at the store "was kind of like our inside joke," Fischer said Tuesday as she and Ranson awaited the arrival of a minister.
The two were, of course, drinking coffee.
"We constantly come here. We hit the drive-thru sometimes twice a night."
The java junkies don't measure their daily consumption in cups, said Fischer. "It's more like pots, really."
Fischer said Ranson proposed on Black Friday. The couple had been dating since April.
"(The wedding) is our Christmas present to us," said Ranson, 32, who noted one of the first things he did for Fischer after they met was to buy her a cup of coffee from Dunkin' Donuts.
Fischer, 27, said her mother suggested a Munchkin bouquet for the in-store nuptials.
"We're not doing that," said Fischer on Tuesday, "but we are going to have a big ceremony (in September), and instead of a wedding cake, we're going to have a doughnut tower."
The Dunkin' Donuts franchisee, Paresh Patel, said he got a call from Ranson last week asking if the couple could be married in his store.
"It's the first wedding ever in a Dunkin' Donuts, I believe," said Patel. "We're very happy for them."
He and his cousin Sam Patel, who is co-owner, presented the newlyweds with a gift basket of coffee and his-and-her mugs, boxes of doughnuts and a Mega Millions lottery ticket (Tuesday's jackpot was nearly $200 million). Patel also promised to make the doughnut cake for the September celebration.
As employees and a couple of customers looked on, the couple stood under a white crepe paper arch, faced each other and held hands.
The Rev. Deborah Kalinowski of Collingswood performed the brief ceremony and, at 4:22 p.m., pronounced the two married.
Now the couple can wake up and smell the coffee together as husband and wife.
It was the second marriage for each. The couple has four young children, ages 3 to 8, between them.
"With four kids," said Fischer with a laugh, "we need to run on Dunkin'."
For Ranson, a vice president of operations for a Philadelphia construction company, it's always black except for the four Equals added in the morning.
"I like a little sweetness when I wake up," he said.
For Fischer, now a stay-at-home mom, it's just black.
"We don't want anything to interfere with our caffeine intake," said the new bride.
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