Suzanne Ford Stinson of Pinehurst, NC, and Mark Thomas McNeil of Los Angeles, CA, were married at 4:30 p.m. November 5, 2011, in a ceremony at the bride’s home in Pinehurst.

The Reverend Doctor William E. Smith of Southern Pines, NC, performed the ceremony.

The bride will take her husband’s name. She is a co-founder and owner of the research and consulting firm Media & Entertainment Strategies, Inc. located in Wilton, Connecticut. She is the daughter of Shirley Mailloux Stinson of Pinehurst and the late Thomas Arthur Stinson. The bride graduated from The O’Neal School in 1981 and Princeton University in 1985.

The bridegroom is currently the Chief of the Major Properties Division for the Assessor of Los Angeles County, as well as a member of the California Bar. He is the immediate past President of the California Association of Professional Employees. The groom is the son of Patty Jo McNeil of Las Vegas, Nevada. A native of the Detroit area, Mr. McNeil served in the U.S. Navy on nuclear submarines before attending Princeton University, where he met Suzanne their freshman year.

Representing the late Thomas Stinson and Mrs. Shirley Stinson, the bride was escorted by Whitman E. Knapp of Brookline, Massachusetts. Robert H. Hunt of Wilton, Connecticut –

Ms. Stinson’s friend and business partner - was her attendant. The writer Betsy Voinovich Kompier of Cleveland, Ohio, was Mr. McNeil’s attendant. Senior Pianist of the United States Army Band and Group Leader of the US Army Blues, Sergeant Major Anthony W. Nalker of

Arlington, Virginia, provided select classical pieces and favorites from the American Songbook, accompanied by vocalist Joseph Murphy of Pinehurst.

Before vows were exchanged, poetry and scripture that the couple shared with one another during their courtship was read by long-time friends of the couple. 1 Corinthians 13 was read by Darreby S. Ambler of Bath, Maine. (In 1985 Mr. McNeil read this passage at her wedding to The Reverend Michael N. Ambler Jr.; Ms. Stinson was one of Mrs. Ambler’s bridesmaids.) Leann Parker-Heustess of Pinehurst recited Marlowe’s The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, The Honorable John R. Noguez, the Assessor of Los Angeles County, read Yeats’ He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, along with a modern-language translation commissioned by Mr. Noguez for the occasion. Dr. A. Victoria Saxon of Glendale, California, and William R. Bonsal IV of Niskayuna, New York,

performed Edward Lear’s The Owl and the Pussy-cat, in costume.

This is a first marriage for both. The couple resides in Los Angeles and Pinehurst.

A rehearsal dinner for roughly 30 visiting guests was held at the Southern Prime Steakhouse the evening of November 4th. Several toasts at the reception on the 5th mentioned Ms. Stinson’s late father Thomas, and how pleased he would have been with this union for his only child.

The youngest wedding attendee, 13 year-old Anastasia Meyers of Pinehurst, used modern technology to SKYPE the ceremony to the oldest virtual attendee, an 87 year-old friend of Ms. Stinson’s who lives in New York City, unable to attend due to ill health. She reported that the video link of the nuptials was “just terrific!”