How Garrison Anne Rufa and Theodore Joseph Lavoie did not meet before them is a mystery to both of them. They were both avid snowboarders who grew up in New England, which has a tight-knit snowboarding community.
Ms. Rufa was so involved in the sport that when she was 15 her family moved from Little Silver, New Jersey, where she grew up, to Chester, Vermont, for her to train at Okemo Mountain School in Ludlow, Vermont, and to compete. .
Mr. Lavoie spent years as a professional snowboarder, riding for Eastern Boarder, an East Coast skate and snowboard supplier, and appearing in several snowboarding videos and magazines. “We have friends and acquaintances in common,” Lavoie said. “She It’s crazy that we’ve never crossed paths. “Potentially we were both in the mountains the same summer.” (Snowboarders and skiers sometimes “chase the snow,” Rufa said, heading to Mount Hood in Oregon and other West Coast mountains in the summer.)
The two finally connected on Tinder on August 6, 2020. “Ted’s first hit,” Ms. Rufa said. “We exchanged phone numbers right away.”
They texted for several days before meeting on August 11 at Odiorne Point State Park in Rye, NH, to walk Ms. Rufa’s dog, Layla, a 12-year-old mix. “We walked along the coast and sat by the ocean,” Rufa said.
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A few minutes later, the two realized that one of Mr. Lavoie’s snowboarding friends had recently dated Ms. Rufa’s roommate, whom he knew from his snowboarding life. The two talked until it was too dark to stay any longer.
But when they returned to their cars, they realized the park had closed and the exit gate was locked. “We had to wait for the police to come and let us out,” Rufa said.
The next day, Mr. Lavoie met with Ms. Rufa at her home in downtown Portsmouth, NH. When he arrived, he realized that he had sat on that same step, having attended a party there.
“Shortly after we met, we became inseparable,” Rufa said. “We spent every damn day together. Some would call it fast, but it didn’t seem bad at all.”
Four months later, in December 2020, Ms. Rufa moved into Mr. Lavoie’s home in North Hampton, NH, where the couple now lives. But in June 2022, things no longer seemed to be working. “There was a lot of concern,” Rufa said, mainly about her future. “I was very direct about wanting to get married and have a family from the beginning.”
“I wasn’t sure that was what I wanted,” Lavoie said. “Having done this before, I know firsthand that it’s much worse to jump in unsure.” He was previously married for five years and divorced in November 2019.
So in July 2022, Ms. Rufa moved out. But she, she said, “during our breakup, we never stopped talking, even if the conversations were difficult.”
Two months later, in September 2022, the two reconnected about the future. “We had a deep conversation about our break and the time we spent apart,” Rufa said. And, on September 30, the two had their second first date over pizza. Little more than a A year later, Ms. Rufa returned to live with Mr. Lavoie.
The breakup “was one of the best things that happened to us,” Rufa said. “It made us regroup about what we really wanted.”
And on September 8, 2023, Lavoie brought Rufa coffee, as he does every morning. But that morning she also brought something else: an engagement ring. He waited for the alarm to ring, and when she did, he was already down on one knee and proposed to her.
Ms. Rufa, 33, is a wedding planner and owner of Garrison Anne Weddings & Events. She also organizes and manages wedding sales for Foster’s Clambakes & Catering in York, Maine, where she was previously a full-time catering manager. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of New Hampshire.
Mr. Lavoie, 37, is a general contractor and owner of Blueprint Builders of North Hampton, NH. He has a bachelor’s degree in education from Plymouth State University. Mr. Lavoie grew up in Southbury, Connecticut.
The couple married Dec. 29 to Jason Cooling, a friend of the groom who received a temporary officiant registration through the state of Vermont. The ceremony was held outdoors atop Pikes Peak, on private property near the Inn at Weathersfield in Perkinsville, Vermont, where the reception was held. Thirty people attended: 20 adults and 10 children. “It was really sweet how excited the kids were to be a part of this,” Ms. Rufa said.
The couple spent the day before the wedding snowboarding at Okemo with friends. “It was my home mountain and the first mountain Ted snowboarded on when he was a kid that was bigger than the Connecticut mountains he grew up snowboarding on,” Ms. Rufa said. “It was fun to share with them a mountain we both love.”
