Born for Each Other

Photo

Abby René Olivier and Earp Franklin Jennings were married Dec. 30 at Christ Episcopal Church in Little Rock, Ark. The Rev. J. Scott Walters, an Episcopal priest, performed the ceremony, with the Rev. Kate Alexander, also an Episcopal priest, taking part.

Mrs. Jennings, 28, was until last month the museum and program director at the Esse Purse Museum in Little Rock. She graduated cum laude from the University of Mississippi and received a master’s degree in public service from the University of Arkansas.

She is a daughter of Dawn S. Olivier and René B. Olivier of Biloxi, Miss. The bride’s father retired as an owner and operator of several Chick-fil-A franchises in Hattiesburg, Miss., for which the bride’s mother provided marketing services.

Mr. Jennings, 60, is known as Jay. He is a senior editor at the Oxford American magazine in Little Rock, and the author of “Carry the Rock: Race, Football and the Soul of an American City.” He graduated cum laude from Vanderbilt and received a master’s degree in English from the University of Chicago.

He is a son of the late Medora Sifford Jennings and the late Walter Clark Jennings, who lived in Little Rock. The groom’s father retired as the chairman of First Commercial Trust in Little Rock.

The groom’s previous marriage ended in divorce.

Ms. Olivier and Mr. Jennings met in June 2015 at Christ Episcopal Church after a Sunday service at which the groom was ushering.

“I had seen her several times before,” Mr. Jennings said, “and both times I just thought, ‘Wow.’”

They began a brief conversation during which Mr. Jennings mentioned the book he had written. Afterward, Ms. Olivier went home and put it on her Amazon wish list.

Their church chats became a bit more frequent, and over the course of the next six months, he “kept finding new reasons to ask me to hang out with him,” she said. “But I didn’t mind because I really liked him, I thought that we just had a great connection, and in a short time, he became my best friend.”

Mr. Jennings, who described Ms. Olivier as being “really smart and very poised and mature,” knew early on that their obvious age disparity could pose potential problems, and began thinking to himself, “Please let her be at least 30.”

Ms. Olivier, who said she had been thinking, “Please let him be under 50,” soon learned that Mr. Jennings was just two months younger than her mother.

Nevertheless, their connection grew stronger that spring, when Mr. Jennings invited Ms. Olivier to dinner at his apartment, where candles glowed, Bon Iver played on the stereo, and a meal of broiled cod with clams and chorizo waited on the table.

As Oscar season approached that March, they began attending movies regularly to catch up on the films nominated for best picture, and the friendship became romantic, with a shared love of cooking, tennis and cats.

“Initially, my mom was in shock, and most of my family and friends viewed me as some sort of victim because of our age difference,” Ms. Olivier said. “They were very skeptical, to say the least. Surprisingly, my dad was O.K. with it. He said to me, ‘You can’t help who you fall in love with.’”

Ms. Olivier said that when the people closest to her came to know Mr. Jennings, they were more accepting.

“I told them, ‘Once you meet, him you’ll understand,’” she said. “When they saw how nice he was and how well he treated me, they loved him.”

By the time Mr. Jennings asked Ms. Olivier to accompany him on an annual trip to New York in late August 2016 to attend the United States Open tennis tournament and meet some of his New York friends, they were talking marriage.

“My friends loved her too,” Mr. Jennings said, “though I will admit that a few of them were looking at us with raised eyebrows.”

On Jan. 7, 2017, Mr. Jennings picked up Ms. Olivier for dinner wearing a coat and tie, a very unusual occurrence. He had made a reservation at the same restaurant where they first had lunch.

There, he asked her to marry him.

“He’s someone I look up to and enjoy spending time with,” Ms. Olivier said. “As far as our ages, those numbers don’t meant a thing.”