Local Love Story Brought to You by The Inn at Bowman's Hil

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Michael & Rachel, A Local Love Story

Michael and Rachel are both 2003 graduates of Central Bucks East High School, but did not start dating until six years later, after they were both employed at Windmill Day School and Camp in Doylestown. Michael did landscaping at the camp every year since the age of 16; Rachel taught horseback riding classes for just one summer.

BH: Let's start at the beginning. How does your love story begin?

Michael: To say that we “acquainted ourselves” at Windmill is accurate, but glosses over an important fact: I got to know Rachel after she risked my life on those hallowed grounds.

In her first week of work at Windmill, Rachel thought it prudent to ride one of the ponies bareback. If you guessed that this lead to an emergency room visit complete with broken bones, you are correct. The call on the walkie-talkie was, “This is NOT a drill, any available hands to the horse ring.” I didn't hear the call as I was dutifully weed whacking the ropes course. Meanwhile, Windmill's resident superman and first aid guru, Bobby, somehow DID hear the call over the sound of the Kubota front-end loader and immediately leapt into action; racing across camp towards the horse barn where Rachel lay — wrist in splinters.

Bobby's heroic response to Rachel's plight left a minor detail unchecked — the tractor. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed an orange blob accelerating down a hill perpendicular to me. Thirty yards ahead of the tractor, enjoying a grassy snack, stood a few sheep. The scene came into focus, and I realized I needed to act. I dropped my tools and broke into what few would call a gallop. Upon reaching the rolling Kubota and matching it stride for stride, I summoned my latent cowboy and in an act so beautifully contrasting Rachel's dismount, I mounted the wayward machine and spared the sheep. I give her credit for going to such an extreme to get my attention, but really, all she needed to do was ask.

BH: WOW! After such an amazing “meeting” story, how in the world did you top it for the proposal?

Rachel: I turned around, and that man was on one knee with a ring in his hand. It was a complete surprise. That said, the day before at the nail salon with Mom and my sister Aubrey to get pedicures, I chose to get a manicure instead. The risk of walking around with unpolished nails just seemed treacherous.

I had a lot of plans for that first weekend of October. I'd convinced Michael to go to the Dressage at Devon Horse Show with me and even splurged for the good tickets. My parents had wanted to meet up with us to see our family in Utah in October sometime, but at last minute they decided to travel to Utah that very weekend, and Michael and I didn't have enough time to book flights. But, all of the sudden, Mom and Dad were flying out to Utah and we were going too. I was beyond upset — I had to cancel the tickets to the horse show, and never again would Michael and I be in such a nascent stage of our relationship that he would consciously agree to drive an hour one way to watch dressage with me.

Our Utah weekend progressed very typically, with Cafe Rio and frozen yogurt bar raids, and the girls hitting the mall and the nail salon while the brothers, dads, uncles, cousins and boyfriend went on a dusty four-wheeling expedition. On Saturday morning, we drove up to Ogden to Grandma's house. “Are you going to put your makeup on?” Mom nagged, and I smiled because it reminded me of when I was thirteen. I put my makeup on in the passenger side mirror of the car. When we arrived at Grandma's, I gave Michael a tour of the little house my grandparents shared with me right after I came back to the States from England. The new carpet, the picture of Grandma Hope, the new washer and dryer, the vases that Grandpa sets all around the house for Grandma in June when the roses are blooming. I took Michael to the room where I stayed when I was living with Grandma and Grandpa, where I first started in on those hours-long phone conversations with Michael.

When I turned around, like I said, he was on one knee. I stood there. The door behind me was open, and I could hear the rest of the family getting brunch on the table. “Did you clear everything out of the car?” “Is something in the oven burning?” “Is that a new washer and dryer?” “When did you redo the kitchen?” And I said yes, and the conversations didn't stop, but they changed. “Congratulations!” “You're off the payroll!” “I thought you would have been engaged years ago!” “How long were you going to stand there for?” We let Dad take his pictures, and called Michael's mom and dad and sisters in Pennsylvania, and I had a ring on my finger and we were going to get married. Even if we weren't going to a horse show.

Michael: So, when people say go big or go home, don't just assume that going home is a cop-out; it very well may be the perfect thing to do (especially when home is grandma's house).

BH: What's your favorite local date spot?

Rachel: We can't resist stopping in at Annie's Water Ice whenever we can! It's a summer indulgence that taps into nostalgia like nothing else can.

Michael C. Olenick and Rachel Anderson were married on Thursday, August 18, 2011 at the Washington D.C. Latter-day Saint temple in Maryland. The couple celebrated their wedding with a ring ceremony and reception at the Merion Tribute House in Lower Merion on August 19. Bishop Timothy Flanigan of Carversville presided at the ceremony. An open house will also be held in their honor at the Hope Gallery and Museum of Fine Art in Salt Lake City, Utah on Friday, August 26.

Michael now runs the Food and Nutrition Network in Bucks County for the Bucks County Opportunity Council on Doyle Street. Rachel does marketing for the Adler Institute of Advanced Imaging in Jenkintown.

This Bucks County local love story was brought to you by one of the most romantic bed & breakfasts on the east coast, The Inn at Bowman’s Hill, an exclusive Bucks County Bed and Breakfast Inn located just 2 miles south of the town of New Hope, PA, across the scenic Delaware River from Lambertville, NJ. This beautiful New Hope Bed & Breakfast Inn, perhaps more akin to a boutique hotel, is the only 4-Diamond lodging in all of Bucks County and enjoys a serene location alongside the Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve, a 100-acre Bucks County nature preserve surrounded by mature woodland. The Inn at Bowman’s Hill provides the perfect setting to celebrate engagements, anniversaries, honeymoons, intimate weddings, commitment ceremonies, birthdays, girls’ weekends, and babymoons all year long. Check out their last minute deals and weekday specials.