Real New England Weddings: Sarah Loyd & John Tietze

Draw inspiration from their stylish celebration.

By Jamie Coelho· 11/17/2008, 4:09 a.m.

August 8, 2008
Arnold Arboretum & Les Zygomates, Boston

Photograph by Ashley O’Dell

It was love at first “strike” for North Enders Sarah Loyd and John Tietze, who met at fencing club practice at the University of Minnesota. “We were each other’s toughest opponents,” says Sarah. For their unconventional ceremony at the Arnold Arboretum, Sarah, a comparative studies grad student, made her own dress; John, who studies philosophy at Boston University, wore a tie sewn from the same bright fabric. “Red is passionate, which is what we wanted for our wedding,” Sarah says. To wit, she also wore a crimson birdcage veil and red wine–colored lipstick.

As the pair prepared for marriage, neither person wanted to compromise his or her identity by assuming the other’s name. So they chose to share a new moniker—the English translation of the Welsh word from which Sarah’s maiden name originated. And so it was that, in a ceremony amid the trees, the couple in red became Mr. and Mrs. Grey.