01:00 AM EST on Sunday, January 25, 2004

Jennifer Rice and Peter D'Agati

St. Dominic Chapel, Providence College

12.13.03

How can two people have so much in common? They cook, they sail, they're restoring a house together. They both grew up in New Jersey. Both graduated from Providence College with math degrees, and now, both work in fields related to money and numbers.

Jennifer Rice, 31, works for Deutsche Bank as a project manager. Peter D'Agati, 32, works for Brown Brothers Harriman as a portfolio strategist. They met as students at Providence College in the early '90s. Both had looked at small-private-Catholic colleges in the Northeast, and chose PC. But they didn't really know each other, and never had a date there.

The romantic interest began at an alumni event a couple of years after graduation -- Peter graduated in '93, Jennifer in '94. As a consultant with Lazard Asset Management, Jennifer was based in Connecticut, but was working on a project in Manhattan, where Peter was living. After the alumni event in Providence, they went out on a date in New York City, and their relationship began. Eventually, Jennifer got Lazard to find a place for her in their Manhattan office.

Fast forward to February 2003: Peter had planned a great weekend to propose marriage to Jennifer, whom he had now dated for eight years. "She loves the beach, so it was always my plan to propose on a beach. But there was a huge snowstorm that day, and the drive to Chatham became a nine hour drive with a foot and a half of snow on the ground by the time we arrived. So I held the ring overnight. We went for a walk along the beach in the snow the next morning, and I proposed."

They knew they wanted a Newport reception. "It's a special place for us -- we go there every year for the boat show." Peter introduced Jennifer to the fine art of sailing. For their honeymoon, they went to the Bitter End Yacht Club, a sailing resort on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands. "The first day we rented a sailboat, they asked if we needed any help, and we said 'oh no, we've sailed for years, we know what we're doing.' The wind was so strong though that we capsized almost immediately, in front of everyone."

Pasttime #2: Cooking together. "The first time we did it was, shall I say, tense," says Jennifer. "There was some friction," adds Peter. "Both of us wanted to control the kitchen."

Jennifer: "Especially Peter."

Peter: "I admitted I had control issues."

Jennifer: "So we resolved it -- one is the chef on any given night, the other the sous."

Peter: "But it took us a couple of years to devise this method."

The couple recently bought a brownstone in the historic Paulus Hook area of Jersey City, and are restoring it, one room at a time. "We're learning everything as we go," says Jennifer.

"We spent the past three nights spackling," says Jennifer. "We don't even really try to estimate how long this will take -- Peter says two years, I say ten!"

Both are extremely organized -- compulsively so, says Jennifer, sheepishly. Peter arrived at Astors' Beechwood with a folder under his arm -- at least it wasn't a briefcase -- but Jennifer says it was actually her itineraries. "He's more compulsive about the house, I was more compulsive about the wedding."