Super Twosday: A quirky neon wedding for Florida couple in Vegas
Two became one on a Twosday for the ages.
Standing in pink Converse sneakers in front of the retired Lady Luck hotel-casino marquee, 47-year-old Javier Ansoleaga and 51-year-old Stephanie Hippensteel sealed their marriage with a kiss just shy of 2:22 p.m. on Feb. 22, 2022.
The Tampa, Florida, couple loves a good story, and the pair began a new chapter together Tuesday at the Neon Museum north of downtown Las Vegas.
Ansoleaga and Hippensteel were one of multiple couples in suits and wedding dresses at the Neon Museum and one of many in Las Vegas who scheduled their nuptials for the palindrome-like date. Clark County issued marriage license No. 5 million on Sunday.
The couple got engaged 15 months and 3 days ago and targeted spring 2022 for their wedding date. Forgoing the “cliche” of a Valentine’s Day wedding, they chose 2/22/22. Sure, it’s an easy date to remember. But primarily, Ansoleaga said, the date creates a storyline for their special day. They booked the 2 p.m. wedding slot a year in advance to give themselves a shot at as many 2s as they could get.
“We didn’t want to pick a random date that no one would remember,” the groom said shortly after the ceremony had ended, then quipping “it’s also National Margarita Day.”
“We may partake in one of those later,” the bride added.
Elvis Presley’s crooning rendition of “Can’t Help Falling in Love” set the stage. Pastor Pete Starzyk of Elegant Vegas Weddings officiated their ceremony, which lasted about 15 minutes.
Starzyk cracked jokes and improvised his way through the ceremony like a man who’d been in the wedding business for 47 years (which he has). Ansoleaga slipped onto Hippensteel’s left hand a sparkling, diamond-encrusted wedding band. Hippensteel slipped onto Ansoleaga’s a 1964 John F. Kennedy silver dollar from his late father’s coin collection that was melted and molded into a wedding band.
Starzyk and his wife, Daniele, run the wedding business together. The Ansoleaga-Hippensteel wedding was one of five Starzyk officiated on Tuesday and the only one to begin at 2 p.m. Starzyk officiated two weddings at the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign on a similarly numerological date, Nov. 11, 2011, or 11/11/11 — one at 11:11:11 a.m. and another at 11:11:11 p.m.
The pastor was trying to time the ceremony’s end and first spousal kiss so the two would be married exactly 22 seconds into 2:22 p.m. Starzyk said he set his watch and it was “as close as I could get it — that I thought — to that time,” though journalists at the wedding clocked their kiss at 2:17 p.m.
In a follow-up text, Ansoleaga said, “I didn’t look at the watch at that moment but we are going with 2:22” with a grinning emoji tacked on at the end.
Hippensteel said they had considered a Caribbean wedding before COVID-19 hit. Rather than asking people to travel internationally during the pandemic, they settled on a favorite vacation spot: Las Vegas.
They see themselves as a nontraditional couple, so they didn’t want a “cliche” wedding in a ballroom, hotel or church. Mission accomplished. No bridesmaids, no groomsmen, no chapel, a solo walk down the aisle for Hippensteel and a picturesque neon boneyard backdrop. They said they liked the numerology, and Hippensteel added that she preferred a workweek wedding day.
“A lot of people get married on a Saturday. And it’s like, ‘No, it’s Tuesday. We’re weird. Let’s do Tuesday,’” she said.
Ansoleaga wore a tuxedo and Hippensteel wore a white dress, but in lieu of loafers and heels, the couple wore a matching set of hot-pink Converse Chuck Taylors.
Ansoleaga bought her a pair for her birthday one year, and Hippensteel, anticipating gravelly Las Vegas ground, suggested tennis shoes to wear at the wedding. They bought two new pairs so each would have a pristine set for their big day. The couple affixed small light-up squares to their shoelaces ahead of their Tuesday night wedding reception at Black Tap inside The Venetian.
Hippensteel and Ansoleaga met through eHarmony four years ago. Hippensteel recognized the bar at Columbia Restaurant in the background of Ansoleaga’s profile picture; the place was one of her favorite dining spots, she said, initiating the first message. It was there they held their first date.
And on Tuesday at their wedding, the pastor recalled how the online connection began a strong friendship that formed the foundation for their love.
The couple got engaged in St. Augustine, Florida, the country’s oldest settlement founded by the Spanish in 1565, and a “horse-drawn Cinderella carriage” ride through the streets was followed by dinner at Columbia Restaurant’s St. Augustine location.
Ansoleaga’s family is from Spain, and the Spanish restaurant in a Spanish city “was a nice tie-in,” she said.
“We like the story,” said Stephanie Hippensteel, now Stephanie Ansoleaga. “We like a reason for things.”
The Review-Journal is owned by the family of Dr. Miriam Adelson, the majority shareholder of Las Vegas Sands Corp. Las Vegas Sands operates The Venetian.
Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.