Laura Marie Acker was visiting her mother in Lewes, Del., in June 2023, when she joined a group of her mom’s friends for a Ouija board night. “During the session, my father came through via letters and numbers with a surprising message,” Ms. Acker said. “I would be engaged in 2024.”
When she tried Ouija again five months later, she said another message from her father, who had died in 2016, advised her to keep going to church. “I thought the whole thing was crazy.”
It was the end of 2023, and Ms. Acker continued to experience an “unsatisfactory dating life” after years of living in Miami and New York before moving to Charleston, S.C., in 2020. “I didn’t hold out much hope because I’ve always dated men with no interest in marriage or family,” she said. “My career was a priority.”
Things changed in April when Ms. Acker, 39, met Evan Alexander Menscher, 41, through a friend from her Bible study group in Charleston. Her friend knew Mr. Menscher, a divorced father, through their daughters’ ballet class and quizzed him about his interest in marrying again. The friend felt he and Ms. Acker were a match and introduced them via group text.
After a short phone chat, Ms. Acker and Mr. Menscher met at Bar167 in Charleston later that month. “When I saw Evan sitting on a bar stool, he took my breath away,” she said.
Mr. Menscher, 41, said Ms. Acker was 20 minutes late and wearing a bright yellow dress with her hair pulled back. “I thought she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen,” he said. “I was taken aback as we locked eyes.”
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They closed down the bar talking about their life journeys, values, careers, different religions (she is Roman Catholic; he is Jewish) and dreams. “Time stood still,” she said. “I felt my father’s spirit had a role in guiding Evan to me.”
After a parting kiss, she quickly texted her best friend from college to say, “I might have met my husband.”
Mr. Menscher called his sister to tell her, “I’m going to marry that girl.”
Their second date was a few days later at a pizza party. Ms. Acker met Mr. Menscher’s 5-year-old daughter and watched as he engaged her in a game of Mr. Napkin Head as everyone roared with laughter. “I thought of the scene in the movie, ‘The Holiday,’” Ms. Acker said, referring to a scene in the 2006 Nancy Meyers film in which Jude Law plays the same game with his two daughters.
She later called Mr. Menscher to say it was as if she ordered the perfect boyfriend and his adorable daughter on Amazon and they arrived at her doorstep. “You better not return us,” he replied.
Mr. Menscher, who was born in New York City and raised in South Brunswick, N.J., has a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and exercise science from High Point University, and a master’s degree in cellular and molecular biology from East Carolina State University. He works as a remote enterprise account executive at Zoom.
Ms. Acker was born in Raleigh, N.C., and raised in Clifton, Va., and holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing and hospitality from Florida State University. She is an executive vice president of Kreps PR & Marketing, based in Coral Gables, Fla., overseeing the firm’s southeast office in Charleston.
While they enjoyed dinners, movies and boating picnics, there was one early source of tension: different dog-parenting styles. Ms. Acker’s 1-year-old dog Sawyer, a spirited rescue Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, had the run of the house, including a seat at the dinner table begging for food. Mr. Menscher, who grew up with dogs and had two during his previous marriage, is more of a disciplinarian.
“Evan uttered a negative comment about Sawyer’s behavior under his breath, and I got angry, rushing to Sawyer’s defense,” she said. They talked about it and their first fight was resolved.
On Sept. 22, while the couple and Sawyer were enjoying a sunset beach walk on nearby Sullivan’s Island, Mr. Menscher got down on one knee and proposed. “I was so surprised I jumped in his arms before saying yes,” Ms. Acker said.
They were married on Jan. 2, in front of a roaring fire at the Farm at Old Edwards Inn in Highlands, N.C. The Rev. Carl Southerland, a priest at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Franklin, N.C., officiated before 10 guests. (Five minutes into the ceremony, his daughter yelled, “Kiss her already!”)
Of their nine-month romance, Mr. Menscher said, “We moved fast because there was never a moment of doubt for either of us.”
Ms. Acker said Mr. Menscher made her feel confident, safe and at peace. “Evan encouraged me to always be honest and transparent,” she added.
