what we know so far...

MARNIE BERRINGER & JAMES RIDDLE

MAY 2007

ABOUT MARNIE

Margaret Kaye Berringer was born in December 1974 in lovely Camden, NJ to Tom and Jean Berringer. Named after her two grandmothers, Margaret (Peg) Berringer and Catherine (Kaye) Watchous, Tom and Jean (also known as Regina and Jeanne [pronounced genie]) planned from the start to call her "Marnie." This plan went smoothly until Marnie started kindergarden and decided that she was "all grown up" and wanted to be called Margaret. She eventually regretted this, and upon starting college decided she was un-grown-up and reverted back to Marnie.

Marnie has an extensive family, as Jean is the eldest of 8 (seven girls and one boy) and Tom is the second of 5 (two girls and three boys). Marnie has someting like 30 first cousins. She has only one sibling, Denise, who is married to Greg Wood and has an adorable daughter, Amelie, who is 3 years old. Marnie's parents and the Woods live in Phoenix, while most of her extended family is in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Kansas and New York.

ABOUT JAMES

James is a "third." James Henry Riddle III, that is. He is the second of three children, and his older brother, believe it or not, is also named James. But James' parents, Jim and Fran, had originally decided not to do the "third" thing, and named their first son James Scott Riddle. But then Jim had a change of heart, so two years later, little Jimmy was born. Scott and James' sister Molly came along in 1980, ten years after Scott and eight after James.

James is from Atlanta, though his extended family is mostly in North & South Carolina. Both parents (now divorced) as well as Scott, his wife Renee, and their one-year-old son Zach live outside of Atlanta, while Molly lives in SF near her little-big-brother.

HOW WE MET

James and Marnie met on the internet. How cliche, right? Marnie's video production company had done a piece about the website Tickle.com, which provides many, many different kinds of tests to pass the time -- personality tests, IQ tests, pschological tests, etc. Marnie was intrigued, and went online to try out some of the tests. Meanwhile, James was sucked in by an IQ test, and also became a member of the website. Eventually both Marnie and James signed up for the "matchmaking" aspect of the site, and were quickly matched by the wizard behind the curtain. Actually, Marnie was the one-and-only person that James ever contacted via the website -- that says something about the success rate, now doesn't it?

WHEN WE GOT ENGAGED

March 29, 2006

HOW IT HAPPENED

See my Belize trip diary for the whole story.

ABOUT THE BIG DAY

Northern California, in May of 2007. Details yet to be decided on include: everything.