| For actors Mariska Hargitay and Peter Hermann a meeting on the set of
a crime show leads to wedding with a sweet, fairy-tale innocence about
it
When it comes to falling in love, some people charge out of their
corner only to get KO'd in the first round. Others try to dodge their
feelings, bobbing and weaving till they can't fight them any longer.
When you meet Mariska Hargitay, the 40-year-old co-star of Law & Order:
Special Victims Unit, and her husband, actor Peter Hermann, 37, who has
a recurring role on the show, it's easy to see who plays to which type.
Hargitay is energetic and expressive, flipping her short, chestnut hair
back and forth as she speaks and jumping up frequently to retrieve
props to help tell a story. The actress isn't afraid to share intimate
details about herself with a stranger (as her large, hazel eyes pool
with tears) or correct the stranger's bungled pronunciation of a name.
"I have to tell you how to say that," remarks Hargitay, dressed in
jeans, a snug-fitting tank top and fur-trimmed boots and sitting in the
dining room of her New York City townhouse. The porcelain tea service
and delicate finger sandwiches laid out before her may appear at odds
with her forthright attitude, but if she notices the irony, she doesn't
let on.Hermann, who shows up an hour later, is too personable to be
called shy. Still, when the 6-foot-5 groom is asked a question, he
pauses several moments before dispensing a thoughtful, metaphorical
answer."I think some lightbulbs work on a switch, and some work on a
dimmer and just get brighter," he says, explaining how his love for his
wife has evolved.
When they met on the set of Law & Order: SVU in November 2001, Hargitay
hoped to throw a switch rather than turn things on gradually. "I
thought he was Superman," says the actress. "He wears these glasses on
the show that make him look like Clark Kent." To break the ice she
tried making a joke, but "he didn't think I was funny. He totally shut
me down," she says with a laugh. Things went slightly better several
months later, when the two became engrossed in a lengthy discussion
about religion, which culminated in Hermann's suggesting they attend
church together the following Sunday. "I just about passed out when
I saw him there," says Hargitay. "I thought, That's my husband."
Hermann took a bit longer to come around. "Our early dating life
consisted of trying to figure out whether we were dating," he says.
"We would go out to eat, take walks and have endless conversations -
part of the dialogue would be about trying to decide our romantic
status. I think I knew she was the one long before I realized I knew."
Says Hargitay, "I understood we were dating the whole time! I can be
brash, but Peter plays his cards a little closer to the vest."
The couple found themselves on the same page on Valentine's Day in 2003
when they surprised each other with the same gift: a book of
photographs by British artist Andy Goldsworthy, who creates sculptures
out of natural objects. (They had seen a documentary about the artist
on the night Hermann first told Hargitay he loved her.) A proposal
followed a little more than a year later at Storm King, a sculpture
park in Mountainville, NY, that includes a serpentine stone wall
Goldsworthy built. Kneeling next to it Hermann pulled out a weathered
platinum band set with nine evenly spaced round diamonds, designed by
NYC jeweler Karen Karch for Push. The style symbolizes the idea that
even thought the couple will encounter rough patches, there is always a
happy moment up ahead.
The first sparkling stop along the way: the Unitarian Historical Chapel
in Santa Barbara, where the pair wed on August 28, 2004, in front of
200 guests, including Hilary Swank, Chad Lowe, Jodie Foster, Joely
Fisher and Hargitay's SVU co-star, Christopher Meloni. The bride wore
a Carolina Herrera dress, to which she pinned a locket - a gift from
Fisher - containing photos of her mother, actress Jayne Mansfield, and
grandmother. Hargitay chose the gown's blush color to honor Mansfield,
who favored the hue. Just as unexpected was the couple's seeming role
reversal: As if to prove how far they had come in mitigating their diff
erences, says Hermann, "I recited my vows so loudly you could have
heard them in Oregon. But Mariska's were quiet and small."
The ceremony ended with a 12-member gospel choir walking down the side
aisles of the church while singing a raucous rendition of "Ain't No
Mountain High Enough." Afterward, guests (who had been treated to a
weekend of events, including a Mexican-theme buffet on the beach the
night before) traveled to a private estate in nearby Montecito for the
reception. There, planner Yifat Oren had played up the lush setting -
complete with a swan pond and vine-covered arbor - to suggest an
enchanted forest. The seating-card table was decorated with moss and
magnolia branches; dining tables were dotted with Depression glass
vases of dahlias, roses, lilies of the valley, grasses and fruit.
After dinner a band launched into R&B favorites, and guests celebrated
a couple whose differing romantic styles once might have seemed
inauspicious. But if Hargitay had ever doubted Hermann's commitment,
she didn't on that day. At the buffet the night before, in fact, he
was literally head over heals, jumping on a trampoline Oren had rented
for the event. Says Hargitay with a smile, "He ended up breaking it."
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