Erin Elizabeth Pearson and Brendan Michael Rivage-Seul were married April 13 at the office of Peter Atanasson, a registered officiant with the Superior Court of the District of Columbia who is a member of the staff of DC Elopements, which helps couples obtain marriage licenses by proxy.
On May 4, the couple will take part in a celebration ceremony, to be led by their fathers, Thomas C. Pearson and D. Michael Rivage-Seul, at Maison des Polytechniciens, an events space in Paris.
The bride, 36, is a senior researcher at Ipas, a global nonprofit organization based in Chapel Hill, N.C. Her research focuses on increasing women’s access to reproductive health services in developing countries. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and received a master’s degree in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also holds a Ph.D. in public health from Johns Hopkins University.
She is the daughter of Kerry L. Miller of Temple, Tex., and Mr. Pearson of China Spring, Tex. The bride’s father is the executive director of the Arc of McLennan County, a nonprofit organization in Waco, Tex., that promotes and protects the human rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Her mother is the project coordinator in Waco for the Texas School Ready Project at the Economic Opportunities Advancement Corporation, a preschool teacher training program.
The groom, also 36, is a foreign service officer currently stationed in Paris. He graduated cum laude from Lafayette College and received a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard.
He is a son of Marguerite Rivage-Seul and Mr. Rivage-Seul of Westport, Conn. His mother is chairwoman of the women’s and gender studies department, and a professor in that department, at Berea College in Berea, Ky., where the groom’s father, who is retired, was a professor of philosophy and religion, and remains emeritus director of peace and social justice studies.
The couple met in summer 2009 in New Delhi while working as graduate interns for the United Nations Children’s Fund.
