On Feb. 7, 1997, James Sherrat and Brent Reinhard exchanged words and had their first dance to Toni Braxton’s “Unbreak My Heart.” On Feb. 7, 2015, the couple exchanged vows and had their first dance as a married couple.
The couple married at the Franklin Institute on the 18th anniversary of the night they met, at the Cartwheel in New Hope.
“I thought he was making eye contact with me all evening so I finally got up the nerve to say hi and it turns out he hadn’t noticed me at all,” Reinhard laughed. “But he gave me a shot anyway.”
They returned to the Cartwheel for dinner the following night.
“And we’ve been together ever since,” Sherrat said.
Sherrat, 44, works in product management for an insurance brokerage, and Reinhard, 40, is the general manager for JP Morgan Chase’s small-business credit-card program.
In their nearly two decades together, Sherrat said they’ve learned how to overcome any obstacles.
“Communication, managing expectations and being respectful. And being willing to laugh,” he said. “We got into a fight one time and he was so mad and at the end, he did what I perceived to be a hair flip. I was like, ‘Did you just do a hair flip?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, I know. I lost all credibility,’ and we laughed. Any fight always ends with laughter.”
“We don’t sweat the small stuff,” Reinhard added. “Things that upset him or are important to him are things I can manage and vice versa. We strike a good balance. I’m more of the one with my head in the clouds and he keeps me centered. He makes me laugh every day and is such a wonderful person to be around. He taught me to be a better person.”
Sherrat echoed that sentiment.
“He’s the kind of person who makes me want to be deserving of him,” he said. “He truly is the most kind and giving person I’ve ever met. He has a flexibility and genuineness that just makes everybody happy.”
The couple had long talked about marrying when it was legal here, or by their 20th anniversary, whichever came first. Reinhard decided to propose on their 17th anniversary, as marriage equality was quickly spreading — and, logistically, their 18th anniversary was slated to fall on a Saturday.
Sherrat thought they were meeting two friends for dinner at The Raven but found 12 friends in a private dining room, each of whom presented him a sterling rose.
“I wasn’t connecting what was going on. I just thought, Oh isn’t this fun! We’re all going to celebrate our anniversary,” Sherrat laughed. “And then I turned and Brent was on one knee. I said, ‘Oh shit, this is happening!’ He proposed, I said yes and then we had a lovely engagement dinner.”
“I’ve resigned myself to never plan another surprise, it took so much work,” joked Reinhard.
But the work paid off for the couple.
“The wedding day was the most incredible, magical experience I could ever imagine,” Sherrat said.
They originally planned to have a legal ceremony in New Jersey and then a reception in Pennsylvania, but the Keystone State legalized same-sex marriage three months after their engagement. They selected the Franklin Institute as the venue; they took photos on the roof, had the ceremony in the Planetarium, cocktail hour in the Heart and Brain structures followed by a dinner with their 180 guests.
“The venue itself was spectacular,” Reinhard said. “But what most struck me about the day was that this is the one time in your life where every single person who’s important to you will be together in the same place, celebrating you. And when you let that emotion sink it, it’s an amazing feeling. We really let ourselves enjoy the enormity of that love and support.”