Naomi Cherie Lipke and Mark Hugo Stockett were married May 25,2013, at the Gates of Heaven Synagogue, Madison, Wisconsin. A reception followed at Olbrich Botanical Gardens.
Naomi, who will retain her birth name, was walked down the aisle by her parents, Jennifer and Allen Lipke, Hibbing, Minnesota. Elizabeth Lipke Valeri, sister of the bride; Rachel Bednarczuk, and Shelley Rogers served as attendants. Christopher and Andrew Valeri, nephews of the bride, were petal throwers.
Mark walked down the aisle accompanied by his parents, Ruth-Anne and Marshall L. “Jack” Gibson. Melodie French was best man. Hannah Hoose, longtime friend of the groom, played the piano for the ceremony. A particularly touching moment of the ceremony occurred when Melodie French retrieved the wedding rings from the safekeeping of Naomi’s grandmother, Rosella Lipke.
Raviv Ramdial and Jesse Hugo, cousins of the groom, and Erik Beach, friend of the Lipke family were ushers. Saretta Ramdial, cousin of the groom; Susan Leo, goddaughter of Mrs. Ruth-Anne Gibson; Angel Lipke, sister-in-law of the bride; and Megan Lipke, cousin of the bride, all took part in the ceremony by reading poems and biblical verses having special meaning for the couple.
On Sunday, the wedding guests met at Lake Wingra to picnic and visit the zoo. Sunday night, the newlyweds hosted a bluegrass party at the Malt House with music by The Oak Street Ramblers and the Stompin’ Radishes.
Naomi graduated from Hibbing High School in 2002 and Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio in 2006. She attended the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana before taking a position as a consultant with Madison Environmental Group. She will continue her education in environmental work at Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Mark attended Deering High School and graduated from The Maine School for Science and Mathematics, Limestone, Maine, in 2002. After graduating from Oberlin in 2006, he earned his PhD in physics at the
University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 2011. He is currently a post-doctoral research scientist associated with the DESIREE project at Stockholm University.
After their honeymoon in Minnesota and Iceland, the couple is at home in Stockholm.
