01:00 AM EST on Sunday, February 15, 2004

Maggie Lawrence and Jeffrey Pimentel

St. Jean Baptiste Church, Warren

12.27.03

The 18th-century Barrington house where Maggie Marie Lawrence grew up is a rather chaotic scene today. Two days after Christmas, a tree consumes one corner of the parlor, opened Christmas gifts and their wrappings lay scattered about, and stockings still hang on the mantel. Insert a bride, 5 bridesmaids, 2 flower girls, 2 ring bearers, and mother and father, all trying to don their wedding attire. The rowdiest toddler, three-year-old Jake Lawrence, is wearing a Lion King costume.

Practically the entire wedding party is family: sisters, sisters-in-law, cousins, brothers. Maggie, the youngest of five children, is the last to get married. Her eight nieces and nephews are all in the wedding. Her 85-year-old grandmother is there, having survived breast cancer and a stroke in the past year.

"When I was in high school, my mother had an aortic aneurysm that required emergency surgery when it ruptured," says Maggie. "She had lost her mother when she was in her early twenties due to the same condition. They were able to save my mother, and since then I have treasured her as my best friend. I am getting married in the same church my parents did 36 years ago."

Jeffrey Pimentel's parents came from the Azores when they were teenagers, settled in Fall River, and started a family. His grandparents came over, speaking only Portuguese. He has two younger sisters -- both are in the wedding -- and a huge extended family.

"We decided to get married close to Christmas because it's the happiest and most family-oriented time of year," says Maggie.

Maggie, 25, is a medical laboratory technician. Jeffrey, 22, is a research technician working in stem cell research at Roger Williams Hospital. Eventually, he hopes to go to Brown to get a PhD in pathology.

"Jeff and I met while working at Sears," says Maggie. She worked on the sales floor; he worked in the stock room. "I was the pursuer (Maggie was 21, Jeff, 18) -- Jeff was the extremely shy type. I finally got him to look up into my eyes rather than down at his shoes, and found myself in the stock room more and more having long conversations with this guy who wouldn't talk with anyone else. With a little help and reassurance from Neil (Jeff's best friend and best man), Jeff asked for my phone number." Three years later, they got engaged.

Today, at St. Jean Baptiste, Jeffrey and Neil are waiting in a room behind the altar. They're both visibly nervous, pacing, checking and double-checking the rings, concerned about how they'll know when to go out to the altar, who goes first, who stands on which side. They take turns peering through a narrow window that looks out into the sanctuary, making sure they stop looking when they hear that Maggie has arrived.

Their wedding program features a soft-focus romantic photo of a long, narrow, snow-covered road flanked by tall trees, and these words: "There he stands. On the brink of our journey, he holds out his hand. My heart trembling, I grasp his. We look ahead and with no words spoken, we realize this is our destined path and we are ready to take our first steps together. Thank you all, for sharing in our day. Maggie Marie"