When Corey Duersch and Chris Scocco were on their first date, Chris thought to himself “He kind of seems too good to be true.”
After connecting through Tinder, the two had their first date at Warsaw Coffee in Fort Lauderdale.
“He was educated, well-versed in a lot of topics, and liked a lot of things that I did, too,” Chris said on the couple’s wedding website. “Fast forward a few months, we started to date exclusively and now here we are. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Chris decided he wanted to propose to Corey while on a trip to Hawaii in May 2019.
“I started looking at places on O’ahu and on the big island that might make a good place to propose, but I couldn’t really envision it, so I thought the best plan would be to do it ‘when the moment came to me,’” Chris says. “This, as it turned out, was not the best plan.”
Chris kept the rings with him every day of their trip, looking for a moment to propose, but nothing felt quite right. With only a few days left in the trip, he knew he had to pop the question soon.
“I knew I had to get it in gear or else Hawaii wasn’t going to be the place where we would get engaged and – insert unnecessary gay drama – then we would obviously never get married because it had to happen there,” Chris says.
The moment finally came when they were hiking the Pu’uKalepeamoa Loop Trail, otherwise known as Sunset Hill. After reaching the top, Chris suggested taking some selfies.
After a few pictures, Chris took out the rings and asked Corey “Well, what do you think?” After seeing a look of confusion on Corey’s face, Chris asked “Should we get married?”
“I knew that was the right place for it,” Chris says. “We were above the clouds, in this place that could never be reproduced.”
Corey and Chris held their wedding ceremony and reception at the Orlando Museum of Art in October 2020 with state Rep. Anna V. Eskamani officiating. Though the COVID-19 pandemic threatened their wedding plans, they moved forward with the ceremony with some added health and safety measures.
Besides reading and hearing their vows, one of the moments that sticks out most to the couple is when Chris’ nephew, who was the ring bearer, brought Chris’ ring up the aisle, took it out of the box, and stood there for a minute before giving it to Anna.
“It was a cute, but unexpected, moment during the ceremony,” Chris says. “Everyone got a laugh.”
Most of the art museum’s galleries were open to the wedding guests, so they could enjoy the art as well as the reception.
“The reception was kind of a blur for both of us,” Corey says. “All of the advice that we received about it going by so quickly, that we would have a people hangover (where you feel badly about not seeing everyone at the reception), and that you won’t be able to eat (I think we had three or four bites of food the entire night and missed out on the cookie table and flaming doughnut station) were all so true.”
The couple ended their wedding weekend and spent their first day as a married couple with a brunch with their families and other guests the following morning. “We realized that marriage didn’t define our relationship, but rather made it concrete,” Chris says.
Engagement Date: May 23, 2019
Wedding Date: Oct. 17, 2020
Officiant: State Rep. Anna V. Eskamani
Venue: Orlando Museum of Art
Colors: Black and Gold
Florist: RJ Glamour and Innovation
Caterer: Arthur’s Catering
Photographer/Videographer: Cornerhouse Photography (Photographer), Roeshink Entertainment (Photo Booth)
DJ/Entertainment: DJ Brianna Lee
