8 Years Later, Sterling Couple Says 'I Do'

By Bill Snead

Friday, October 12, 2007

Bill Saltenberger was ready to pop the question. He'd spent "months and months" looking for just the right ring. He wanted it to be special. And he wanted to ask Christine Sarnecky to marry him in a special place, a surprise place -- a place they could later pinpoint on a Google map.

The couple already had made plans to visit Bill's parents in Los Angeles. His plan: They'd fly to San Francisco, say "hi" to some family and then drive down The Pacific Coast Highway to Los Angeles. Along the way he'd whip into one of those scenic ocean overlooks and drop to a knee while Pacific Ocean waves crashed against the rocky shore.

"When we left the house (in Sterling) for Dulles I had the ring in a little bag that was pinned inside a front pocket in my jeans," Bill recalled.

Both Christine and Bill became ill on the flight to San Francisco. "We both had sinus infections but Bill's was worse," Christine said. Bill took some medications that sent him to bed at 8 p.m.

The next morning, they began their drive down postcard-pretty Route 1 headed for the Hearst Castle and an overnight in Cambria, Calif.

They passed overlooks, but none seemed just right.

"In some, the guardrails were right on the edge of a cliff and I pictured Christine being so excited she'd throw her arms in the air and the ring would fly into the ocean," Bill said.

Both Christine and Bill admit to being "picky."

They stopped at another overlook, but a couple in their 70s was chasing birds and squirrels around the parking lot, cameras in hand.

The next overlook was empty and had a big rock to sit on and a great view of the Pacific. This was the place. But as Christine was about to sit next to Bill, a "huge" black spider ruined the moment with Christine retreating to the car.

Five hours out of San Francisco, they were in the Hearst Castle (too crowded) and that evening they ate in a cozy restaurant where the waiter dropped Bill's credit card into a seam in the floor. Much later they were in their room and Bill, still on sinus medicine, immediately went to sleep, his engagement ring safely pinned to his pocket.

The next morning, Christine wasn't feeling well. They headed for Santa Barbara. Ten miles down the road the scenic drive stopped and a freeway began.

"I couldn't believe it," Bill said, "I thought I'd made a wrong turn."

Photo: ZoyaPhoto.com

Christine Sarnecky smiles before the wedding ceremony. She and Bill Saltenberger were married May 12 at Raspberry Plain in Leesburg.

In Santa Barbara, they parked the car near a beach.

"I was nervous because we parked behind a car that a man was living in ... I'm so paranoid about leaving luggage in the car ... so Bill moved the car to the parking lot behind the Four Seasons Hotel," Christine said.

Said Bill: "Chris is concerned that we're parked in the Four Seasons lot and we're not guests so we head back to the car."

On the way back to the car Bill asked Christine if she'd sit on a concrete wall for a moment. But the wall was too high, and Christine's skirt was too short. Not the right place. Bill was determined to "get this done" before they met friends for lunch in Santa Barbara and surely before they arrived in Los Angeles to meet his parents that evening for dinner.

In the car he begins telling her how much he loves her.

"She sees through it pretty quickly, gets nervous, starts stuttering, tosses her arms around, sticks out her left hand and says 'Is this really happening,' and I'm like 'will you marry me?'"

After hugs, tears and laughter, Christine says, "Of all the places we've been over the past two days, you pick a tennis court parking lot ... I can't believe you."

Bill says he gave her an abbreviated version of his good intentions.

Seeing What's in Front of You

By many comparisons, their relationship -- eight years in the making -- hasn't been ordinary since Day One.

Photo: ZoyaPhoto.com

Husband and wife kiss after the ceremony.

Christine moved from Richmond to Northern Virginia in 1998, the same year Bill arrived from Chicago. Both landed jobs at MCI. Both worked as financial analysts and met in a training class. At that time MCI was in Arlington.

It's now in Ashburn, and today it's Verizon-MCI.

They were friends at work, discussed their personal and social lives and were urged by mutual friends to be a couple, but they never dated.

"He tried," Christine teased.

One example.

"I asked her if she wanted to go to the D.C. Improv, maybe grab dinner at this new restaurant," Bill said.

Typical answers. She was busy, had a hair appointment, "No, I don't like comedy," or "I don't eat."

After some discussion they agree that their first "date-date" was to Bill's company Christmas party after he'd begun working at Nextel. It was the first time their friends knew they were dating.

That date-date happened eight years after they met.

"I know, I know," Christine said, "you don't always see what's right in front of you."

The following February, Bill was sitting in Christine's apartment discussing the fact that both of their apartment leases were coming due at nearly the same time.

"I remember sitting on her couch with a glass of wine and I suggested we consider buying a place together."

He recalls hearing "whoooo" and "are you kidding me," or, he says, it could have been "hell no."

Christine came out of the kitchen asking if Bill was serious. "Yeah."

Three months later (Oh, the poor Realtor, says Christine) they bought a townhouse in Sterling.

Last May 12, they were married at historic Raspberry Plain in Leesburg.

Christine mused about changing her name from Sarnecky to Saltenberger.

"It's even longer than mine but at least I'll have the same initials and can keep my monogrammed towels."

The Wedding Vows

If the question is Do I? Then yes I do.

But it's what I Do, have done and want to do,

That puts me here today, in front of you.

You have taken my heart and created two.

One is in love with us, and one is in love with you.

If we're here to Do, then let me talk of what you Do.

Photo: Courtesy Christine Saltenberger

After the wedding, Christine and Bill spent two weeks in Hawaii. The first week was spent on the island of Kauai and the second on Maui.

You make me look forward to waking up, every day.

Every morning, after every nap, on the couch, in every way.

I stand here in front of you, seeking all the right words to say.

Through health and sickness, I will be there every day.

Always by your side, forever and ever, in every way.

You are all that I live for until our final day.

Don't ask of me what you do not want to see.

Push for us to be better, simply loving together to just be.

Walking every path, hand in hand, waiting together just to see.

For better, for worse, you are everything to me.

You are what I will forever strive to be.

In love forever, together as one, join me.

You are everything I've wanted, everything I've sought.

All of my feelings so true, not a single one hard fought.

From the very first day, to the day my heart was caught.

I reach for your hand, I ask for your heart.

I wanted nothing more than to get to this part.

The role of your husband, stepping forward from the start.

Take my hand and walk with me into our life together.

Nothing is easy, partners forever, partners in life.

Me as your husband and you as my wife.

"The wedding went off without a hitch," Bill said, "We had dreamed about this and worked very hard on it for a long time and when it all became reality it made it all worthwhile, our friends, our families ... it was special."

There were 134 guests.

On May 13, Christine, 38, and Bill, 33, left on their honeymoon to Hawaii, flying first class, a gift from Bill's parents, William and Patricia Saltenberger.

"My parents are deceased," Christine said, "and Bill's parents have taken me under their wing so it's nice ... a new family."

They spent one week in Kauai and a second in Maui. A portion of their last day in Hawaii was spent in Oahu touring Pearl Harbor.

When they arrived home at 6:30 a.m. they discovered neighbors had decorated their townhouse in a Polynesian motif.

Today, Christine continues to work for MCI in Ashburn and Bill is an account manager for Teoco Corporation in Fairfax.

Bill Snead can be contacted at: sneadb@washpost.com.

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