Virginia Ford attended an investment management conference in Sydney, Australia a little over two years ago. Trying to attain that pesky signal on her cell phone, she, a native Aussie, turned the corner and walked right into “fate,” also known as Rob Zink who was there on business from Connecticut. Rob scooped Virginia up by her arms. “I was thrilled to bits,” she recalls, looking up and thinking, “This is pretty good.”

Having been a single mother of two daughters—Ally and Tory—for 18 years and Rob a single father of three sons—Eric, Alex and Lee (the latter two are twins)—for six years, they feel “so lucky to have found one another.” Four months after their chance meeting, Rob returned for a visit and it wasn’t long before they realized that they had something special. On a trip to Florence in October 2005, Rob took Virginia onto their suite’s balcony and, while sipping champagne, asked her to marry him. 

Opting for a “relaxed, intimate and elegant” environment, Virginia and Rob chose The Chanler at Cliff Walk on historic Newport, Rhode Island’s Bellevue Avenue and hosted their 35 guests for two days. Virginia’s two daughters were bridesmaids and Rob’s three sons the groomsmen; “Ally held my bouquet and Eric held on to the rings,” Virginia notes. Their two nieces, Lauren and Tamsin were the flower girls.

The ceremony began at 5 p.m. overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. As Virginia came across the lawn in her sleek, off-the-shoulder gown and walked toward Rob, she remembers “feeling so happy.” Virginia reminisces that “it was the most splendid moment of [her] life; it was magic.” Following suit with the tradition something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, Virginia wore her grandmother’s engagement ring, a new strand of south sea pearls (a present from Rob that morning), her friend Alice’s grandmother’s gold bracelet, and a bouquet of cream roses with pale blue lisianthus.

Afterward everyone enjoyed drinks on the terrace while listening to a string quartet and then moved inside to the Spiced Pear Restaurant for a four-course dinner.  “The food was incredible,” Virginia recalls. There were decadent desserts and the cake was “chocolate mousse.” The décor was Dutch lilies, hydrangea and roses in cool blues and soft lavender and pink. A grand piano was brought in especially for the wedding and “We had our first dance to ‘The Way You Look Tonight,’” Virginia says. “The evening had a warm intimate feel.  Everyone got lively as the bride and groom and their kids sang along with the piano player for easily the last two hours of the evening,” recalls their photographer, Brian Phillips. The day went off without obstacle; it was “seamless.”

A family emergency threatened to postpone their honeymoon. “We were so high from the wedding and then we were at a hospital in New York,” Virginia says. Luckily, everything ended up being alright and they left without delay for three romantic days just outside of Rome at the Odescalchi Castle—where Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes recently married—followed by one week at the palatial Le Sirenuse in Positano.

Written by Jessica Latimer