It's as sweet as a caramel macchiato. A local lawyer who found true love at an Andover coffee shop will marry his bride at the counter where they met.
Attorney Steve Shannon is a regular at the Starbucks on Main Street and his afternoon java jolt was routinely served by a friendly coffee barista named Noelle Way. It took about six months but he finally asked her out. She said yes.
"And, now, like they say, the rest is history," Shannon beamed.
Ms. Way will become Mrs. Shannon on Saturday, May 1, when Starbucks in Andover closes a bit early to host their 5 p.m. wedding. Jack Daniel of Free Christian Church in Andover will officiate.
It will be the first time Daniel officiates a wedding at a coffee shop, but it's not the location that matters most, he said.
"The church is the people, not the building. Being on the same page spiritually is what matters," Daniel said.
Shannon, who works at Feinman Law Office in the Bank of America Building at 23 Main St. is jittery like most grooms. He's very excited that his brewing romance will be topped off at the place where it all began. He proposed by candlelight last Christmas Eve after services at Free Christian Church.
"I'm just so excited," he said. "People were surprised to hear about the wedding at Starbucks, but they understand."
About 40 wedding guests will take over the coffee shop and each gets an appropriate favor - a cup of coffee. Red balloons will decorate the shop as four bridesmaids will carry flowers and two groomsmen will escort guests to the coffee counter - instead of an altar.
Shannon said members of the wedding party - excluding the bride - will gather at his law office about an hour before the ceremony, then cross Main Street for the 15-minute ceremony at Starbucks. Photographs will be taken in front of the Town House at 20 Main St. The reception will follow at Glory restaurant on Essex Street.
It's a second marriage for both Way, 36, and Shannon, 49. His two daughters and Way's two sisters are the bridesmaids.
The bride formerly lived in Andover and was an assistant manager at Starbucks for several years. She is now an assistant bank manager at Citizen's Bank in Woburn.
