Sara Jane Striffler met Derek Michael Burgess at the home of a mutual friend, whom Derek knew from college and Sara met while teaching at Mamaroneck High School. Following a whirlwind romance, the couple was engaged after six months and married a year later.

The Reverend Anthony Schueller married the couple in an afternoon ceremony at St. Jean Baptiste Church in New York City. Many family members and friends participated in the liturgy, and the groom’s maternal grandparents, who recently celebrated their seventy-first wedding anniversary, sent wishes for a long and happy marriage.

After the ceremony guests were treated to a cocktail reception on the terrace of the New York Athletic Club overlooking Central Park, followed by dinner and dancing to an orchestra in the ballroom. The bride wore her late grandmother’s diamond heart necklace and a Vera Wang white halter-top gown made of tissue silk.

A 1996 graduate of New Canaan High School, the bride received a bachelor’s degree in women’s studies from Cornell University and a master’s degree in adolescent education and literature from Hunter College. She is a tenth-grade English teacher at Edina High School in Minnesota. Her parents are Robert and Sheila Striffler of New Canaan and Palm Coast, Florida.

The groom received a bachelor’s degree in systems engineering from the University of Virginia. He is a project manager at Accenture in Minnesota. His parents are Michael and Elaine Burgess of Ashby, Minnesota.

Following a two-week honeymoon at the Four Seasons Hotel on the island of Nevis in the West Indies, the couple returned home to Minneapolis.