Before Michael Bradson Craver bought a 1890s farmhouse in Windsor, Va., in 2018, he thought carefully about whether Simone Alexandra Gaillard would want to join him there.
Mr. Craver was eager for Ms. Gaillard to move in with him after more than a year of dating. But Windsor, the picturesque country town in which he hoped to start a chestnut farm, wasn’t exactly her dream setting.
“I’m a beach person through and through,” she said. She stashed her mint green beach cruiser and moved in anyway.
Ms. Gaillard and Mr. Craver met in early November 2016 on Bumble. On Nov. 12, after their first date at the now-closed Brick Anchor Brew House in Norfolk, Va., each went home and deleted their dating apps.
“For me, it was, yeah, this is it,” Mr. Craver said. “It was a fantastic night.”
Ms. Gaillard, 44, teaches Spanish at Tallwood High School in Virginia Beach, Va., the town in which she had grown up with an older sister and two older brothers and their parents, Franklin and Sandra Gaillard; her mother died in 2014. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Italian from the University of Virginia.
She was living alone in her hometown, stopping daily at the shore to stick her toes in the sand, when she matched with Mr. Craver.
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At the time, “my threshold for awkward dates was near its limit,” she said. “I didn’t know if I could go through with another one.” Still, she showed up 10 minutes early, the side effect of an occupational allergy to tardiness. Mr. Craver arrived on time and without a shred of the weirdness she had come to associate with app-assisted meet-ups: “He was sweet and kind.”
That night, they kissed. In the space of a few more dates, “I was ready to go on this journey with him,” she said.
Mr. Craver, 40, is an automotive technician at Crash Champions Collision Repair in Portsmouth, Va. He grew up in Chesapeake, Va., with an older brother and two older sisters and their parents, Marcia and Bruce Craver. He holds a certification in welding from the Virginia Beach campus of Tidewater Community College.
An adolescent experience in the Virginia woods triggered his fascination with chestnut trees. During a hike as a Boy Scout, “some buddies and I came across these trees with spiky balls on them,” he said. Their scout leader chastised them for throwing the balls at each other, then explained they were American chestnut trees. The species was then considered functionally extinct, a precarious status that still holds.
Ms. Gaillard’s decision to uproot herself and move to Windsor in the summer of 2018 had little to do with the nuts Mr. Craver hopes to eventually harvest and sell. “I was willing to take a risk because I loved him,” she said. “I wanted to support him.”
For a year, Mr. Craver worried the lure of her rusty beach cruiser would prove stronger than her wish to get acquainted with the customs of the countryside. Now he worries much less.
“I feel so calm, so much closer to nature,” Ms. Gaillard said from their house in Windsor. She doesn’t lack for company, either: The five chestnut trees they’ve planted so far on their two-acre property have been joined by 13 ornamental chickens, five ducks, two turkeys, three cats and a dog.
Mr. Craver had hoped to be married to Ms. Gaillard well before he proposed on Oct. 10, 2024, during a trip to Pippin Hill Farm and Winery in North Garden, Va.
“I wanted to do it seven years ago,” he said. But he was sidelined by the care and maintenance of an old house. Within months of moving in, its septic system needed replacing. Then came problems with the roof and the foundation. Almost $100,000 in repair bills later, “I didn’t know if I could provide for her. That was the big holdup.”
This month, the desire to be married outpaced his money concerns. Ms. Gaillard and Mr. Craver were wed Dec. 6 at the Historic Martin Mansion in Norfolk. Ms. Gaillard wore an ivory wedding gown with a blush underlay and a long train. Mr. Craver, whose signature handlebar mustache had been meticulously groomed, wore a forest green suit. Randall Piacentini, a retired pastor and family friend, officiated a brief, traditional ceremony for 76 guests.
After a reception, they danced to “It’s Been a Long, Long Time.”
The post She Traded Her Beach Vibes for Chickens and Chestnuts appeared first on New York Times.
