When Stephanie Elizabeth Kanani Morrison married Scott Matthew Platt last month in Hawaii, she was more than happy to share the limelight with another woman — a maternal aunt, Frances Nora Wilsey, whom she cares for full time.
Both Ms. Morrison and Ms. Wilsey walked down the aisle at the Kualoa Ranch on the island of Oahu wearing white dresses. “She was not only my maid of honor but someone I also wanted to celebrate as if she were a bride herself,” Ms. Morrison said. “In addition to walking me down the aisle, I wanted her to have the chance to walk on her own.”
Ms. Wilsey suffers from Williams syndrome, which causes developmental delays and other health issues necessitating round-the-clock care.
On June 19, 2020, Ms. Morrison left her job as a public defender in Nashville to move home with her mother in Cape May, N.J., to help with Ms. Wilsey’s care. “I had reached a burnout point,” she said. “As much as I loved my clients, I asked myself, ‘Am I going to help these people or help my family?’ I realized no measure of success could be as important as spending time with Fran. She is so funny. She is just pure joy.”
To keep busy during the pandemic, Ms. Morrison started a 10-episode weekly podcast that July with Ms. Wilsey, called “Fran Says,” exploring various topics unfiltered. About a year later, when the world finally began opening up, Ms. Morrison and some college friends made a weekend trip to upstate New York, in the Adirondack Mountains.
With the help of her friends, she joined Hinge. After stepping off the “treadmill of success,” she said, “it felt like the perfect moment to focus on bringing love into my life.” As she searched the app, Ms. Morrison accidentally sent a virtual rose to Mr. Platt, conveying a high level of interest. “I sent it and then was like, ‘Oh I don’t know what I just did,’” she said.
Mr. Platt didn’t mind and messaged her on July 17. “Hey Stephanie! You’re extremely cute and love that you went to school out west! I lived in Santa Barbara for like 7 years,” the message read.
Twelve days later, the two had their first date at Crabby Jack’s, a seafood restaurant in Somers Point, N.J., after meeting at Mr. Platt’s home in Ocean City, N.J. While they waited for their table, “We sat on the dock and talked, our feet were dangling in the water,” Mr. Platt said. The two connected immediately.
Ms. Morrison, 36, a caregiver for Ms. Wilsey through Easterseals New Jersey, has a bachelor’s degree from Stanford in political science and a law degree from Vanderbilt. Ms. Morrison was born in Bellevue, Wash., and when she was 9, she and her mother moved to Cape May. She is also the founder and president of the nonprofit Giving Connection, which helps connect people to nonprofit organizations.
Mr. Platt, 34, born in Somers Point, N.J., and raised in Egg Harbor Township, N.J., is a special-education teacher at Maurice River Elementary School in Port Elizabeth, N.J. He received a bachelor’s degree from California State University Channel Islands in liberal studies and a teacher of students with disabilities graduate endorsement from Rowan University.
As the evening wore on during that first date, Mr. Platt reached for her hand. “It’s funny because you can tell when someone has a bit of a wall up, and I’m like, ‘I’m going to slowly chip away at this,’” Mr. Platt said. “I said to her, ‘I’m going to hold your hand now, and it’s probably going to be uncomfortable.’” It was. But she didn’t mind.
On their fourth date, Aug. 15, Mr. Platt met Ms. Wilsey and Ms. Morrison’s mother, Gail Wilsey-Morrison, for the first time. Ms. Morrison and her mother were busy cleaning the house for Mr. Platt’s visit when Ms. Wilsey yelled, “Everyone act normal!”
Ms. Wilsey “absolutely loved” Mr. Platt, Ms. Morrison said. “They had an instant connection.”
“It felt like we had known each other forever,” Mr. Platt said. “Within minutes, she was talking to me about women’s wrestling and sharing her favorite foods.”
On Aug. 20, 2021, Mr. Platt asked Ms. Morrison to be his girlfriend at the Barefoot Country Music Fest in Wildwood, N.J. “Jimmie Allen was singing ‘Best Shot’ as the sun was going down,” she recalled. “I was wearing my favorite pair of red cowboy boots, dancing in the puddles of wet sand.”
Just shy of a month later, on Sept. 15, Mr. Platt texted Ms. Morrison a photo of an otherwise empty drawer at his house with some of her things in it. He messaged her that it was all hers to fill and that he adored her. By the fall, she said, “I was unofficially living there, staying over at least a few nights a week.”
At the end of July 2022, the two bought a small ranch house in Marmora, N.J., a few miles from the beaches of Ocean City. “This enabled Fran to live with us during most of the week, providing invaluable support to my family,” Ms. Morrison said.
Mr. Platt planned to propose on July 4, 2023. He had arranged to surprise Ms. Morrison by having her five best friends from Stanford fly in from across the country to witness the engagement. But Ms. Morrison’s mother contracted Covid. “We had Fran at the zoo when we found out, and I remember seeing Scott’s face drop when I told him the news,” Ms. Morrison said. Ms. Wilsey ended up contracting it as well.
Mr. Platt told Ms. Morrison’s friends to cancel their travel plans, but he didn’t cancel his proposal plan.
On July 4, he got what he considered a sign. “I have a plant in our backyard called a Morning Glory in memory of my grandmother who used to wake me up each morning with the greeting,” Ms. Morrison said. “The flower bloomed heavenly blue on the 4th of July for the very first time.” That was all Mr. Platt needed.
That night, about 100 people, including 30 friends and family, gathered on the beach in front of the 7th Street Surf Shop in Ocean City, ready to paddle out their surfboards and watch the fireworks. “Everyone was waiting for me to propose,” said Mr. Platt, an avid surfer who also taught Ms. Morrison how to surf.
Moments before he and Ms. Morrison paddled out for the show, he proposed.
One month later, on Aug. 4, 2023, Ms. Morrison’s Stanford friends finally flew in from all over the country to surprise her for a weekend together celebrating the engagement.
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The couple were wed Nov. 6 at Paliku Gardens at Kualoa Ranch in Kaneohe, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu, where her father, Douglas Morrison Jr., lives. Emily Longfellow, who was ordained by American Marriage Ministries, officiated before 118 guests.
“When we first started dating, I had this little notebook,” Ms. Morrison said. “I would write about every date in it. In my vows, I said, ‘I started writing these vows since I met you.’”
She even brought the tiny blue notebook, filled with well-loved pages, to the wedding.
Embossed on the cover is a quote attributed to Hans Christian Andersen, “Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.”
On this Day
When Nov. 6, 2024
Where Paliku Gardens at Kualoa Ranch, Kaneohe, Hawaii
The Skies Opened Just as the couple were about to exchange rings, it began to rain. “I worried about our guests, all soaking wet,” Ms. Morrison said. “But then I heard a roar of cheers and applause behind us. We completed the ceremony, drenched and covered in mud, and then danced the night away.”
Three’s Not a Crowd “My mom, Fran, and I started the walk hand in hand, meeting my dad near the end of the aisle,” Ms. Morrison said. “At that point, Fran continued on her own. She was a little unsteady on the path, but Scott met her halfway to help.”
Petals and Leaves The bride wore a pikake lei, a symbol of love, beauty and romance. The groom donned lei of maile, a fragrant vine with intertwined leaves native to Hawaii. “We referenced the maile leaves specifically in the ceremony since both of our rings, crafted in Hawaii, have it engraved on them,” Ms. Morrison said, explaining that they symbolize “two hearts bound together and growing stronger over time.” We asked Scott’s parents, Dave and Dianne, to carry the leis down the aisle and exchange them with us. Having recently celebrated 45 years of marriage this year, they are a beautiful example of unconditional love and a lasting partnership.”
Hawaiian Spirit Ms. Morrison’s parents gave her a Hawaiian middle name, Kanani, “as their way of honoring the special place where they met as well as infusing my life with the aloha spirit,” she said, adding that she also wears the “Kanani bracelet” that her mother gave her in high school.
Accept This Rose? The unintentional “rose” that Ms. Morrison sent Mr. Platt on the dating app has become a recurring theme in their relationship. “Scott frequently gifts me roses,” Ms. Morrison said. “And it’s even featured in our wedding. We displayed a sign that read, ‘You’ve helped us build our life, now help us build our aisle,’ and our guests were asked to place roses in Mason jars at the end of the aisles.”
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