Cute Love Story with Barry Mentions
BMeskunas
Barry is mentioned 3 times (I think) in this article ... start your Monday with
a smile on your face. :-)
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GREAT GET-TOGETHER: Second date: He risked karaoke on her, and she
stole show
BY RICHARD CHIN
Pioneer Press
942 words
18 April 2004
St. Paul Pioneer Press
3F
English
Copyright 2004, St. Paul Pioneer Press . All rights reserved.
A great philosopher — actually Barry Manilow — once said, "You get
what you get when you go for it."
Which, we think, could describe how Harris Faulkner and Tony Berlin
started to fall in love in a karaoke bar.
It was only the second date for Faulkner, the evening news anchor for
KSTP-TV (Channel 5), and Berlin, evening news reporter for WCCO-TV
(Channel 4).
Faulkner had come to the Twin Cities in March 2000 after a successful
stint as an anchor in Kansas City. She hadn't actually started
appearing in news broadcasts when Berlin saw her featured in a
promotional ad on television.
"I thought she was beautiful. I thought, 'Hey, I'd like to meet
her,' " said Berlin, 36. "And I must have mentioned it to Dave,
because he ran with it."
Dave is David Schecter, a fellow WCCO reporter who used to work with
Faulkner in Kansas City.
"He called Harris and said, 'I've got a guy who wants to meet you,' "
Berlin said.
"I said, 'Dave, I'm very flattered, but …' " said Faulkner, 38. "I
just got to town, and I didn't want to come across as desperate. So I
passed."
They didn't meet until November 2000 at a birthday party of a fellow
news anchor, Julie Nelson.
Berlin was tall and good-looking, and "the minute he shook my hand, I
thought, 'Wow, there's a spark here,' " Faulkner said. "Then, he
introduced me to his date."
This time, Faulkner told Nelson, "If you happen to talk to that
player again, tell him to give me a call at work if he ever finds
himself unencumbered."
Nelson relayed the message to Berlin in an e-mail. In March 2001,
Berlin called Faulkner.
Their first date was for drinks after work. It lasted only about a
half hour.
"I thought he'd say, 'Hey, I'll call you.' Nothing," Faulkner said.
But Berlin did call about a week and half later. They went out to
dinner that time.
"About halfway through dinner, Tony said, 'You know, I like to
karaoke.' And I thought, 'Karaoke? I like to sing.' And within 35
minutes, we were singing at Park Tavern in St. Louis Park."
A risky move for the second date, Berlin admitted. "It's like hit or
miss, right there."
Berlin went first. Faulkner said he started working the audience
right from the start: " 'Let me tell you about a girl named Mandy.'
And he starts singing 'Mandy' by Barry Manilow. And I
thought, 'That's the cheesiest thing I've ever seen in my life.'
"Then I thought, 'You know what? I'm going for it.' So I broke
out 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot' by Pat Benatar."
"She was impressive," he said.
"I belted it out," she said. "That was pretty much it. We were pretty
much inseparable after that."
The two were attracted to each other's willingness to let their hair
down, have an adventure and live in the moment.
"We both completely have no problem making fools out of ourselves in
a room full of people," Berlin said. "It's a good quality to have."
In August 2002, they went to Duluth and skipped rocks into the lake.
She dozed off on the couch in their room at the bed-and-breakfast.
When she woke up, she saw Berlin kneeling in front of her with
another rock, this one attached to a ring.
"Don't skip this one," he said.
Faulkner, who had been comfortable focusing on her career, was
surprised at how she felt being engaged.
"There was this intense excitement for me. The sky was bluer. The sun
was brighter. The grass was greener. Chocolate tasted better than
ever," she said.
"Oh, my God," he said.
"No, seriously. It was such a wonderful feeling to have someone love
you enough to say for as long as we live, I want to be with you," she
said. "Life just got sweeter."
Even the wedding planning. "Everyone will say, 'Oh, my gosh, it was a
chore.' I say no, it was a joy."
They got married April 12, 2003, at a small Arizona resort south of
Tucson near the Mexican border. There were about 50 guests, and the
outdoor ceremony combined elements of Faulkner's Christian faith and
Berlin's Jewish heritage.
For example, immediately after the ceremony, the couple spent a few
moments in seclusion to focus on each other, a Jewish tradition
called a yihud.
"We laughed and giggled and hugged each other and lived in the
moment," Berlin said. "We've both been to a lot of weddings and heard
people talking about it. People say it goes like a blur. So, I kept
saying to Harris, 'Be in the moment right now.' "
Minnesota was represented by dozens of small stones from Lake
Superior that were used as paperweights for the place-setting cards.
The Minneapolis couple plans to skip them back into the lake soon to
celebrate their first year of marriage.
The spirit of Barry Manilow also made an appearance. After giving a
toast, Berlin started to sing, "I've been alive forever…."
"My mom looks over, and she says, 'Oh my,' " Faulkner said.
As guests held up candles, Berlin crooned Manilow's "I Write the
Songs."
Wachit
Thanks for the cute story Brenda.
Susan