Elizabeth Anne Petkanics and Andrew Arthur Van Tassel were married Oct. 20 at the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Anne Sundberg, the groom’s aunt who became a Universal Life minister for the occasion, officiated.
Mrs. Van Tassel, 29, is a staff developer with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University in Manhattan. She focuses on literacy instruction for teachers and coaches at elementary schools in New York City, as well at workshops throughout the United States. She graduated from the University of Richmond and received a literacy specialist master’s degree from Columbia.
She is the daughter of Sandra R. Petkanics and Bryan G. Petkanics of Manhattan. The bride’s father is the chairman of the finance department at the Manhattan law firm Loeb & Loeb, in which he is also a partner. Her mother retired as a college consultant at College Admission Service, which was in Short Hills, N.J.
Mr. Van Tassel, 30, is an operations coordinator with investor relations at the D. E. Shaw Group, a global investment and technology development firm in Manhattan. He is also a jazz saxophonist and composer, who regularly performs in jazz clubs around Manhattan including Cornelia Street Cafe, and has played with Terraza Big Band in Astoria, Queens. He was a recipient of the 2017 Ascap Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award for his piece “On the Up.” In 2016, he released a contemporary jazz album, “It’s Where You Are” (Tone Rogue Records), featuring a quartet. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and received a master’s degree in jazz performance from the New England Conservatory of Music.
He is the son of Susan S. Van Tassel and Stephen Van Tassel of Short Hills. The groom’s mother is the vice chairwoman of the national photography committee of the Garden Club of America in Manhattan. Until 2017, his father was the chief executive of Weetabix North America, a natural organic cereal and snack company in Marlborough, Mass. He is works in Chatham, N.J., as a consultant in the healthy food industry.
Although the couple each grew up in Short Hills, they only knew each other from afar during middle and high schools. In 2014, after being introduced through the Hinge dating app, they met at Wilfie and Nell, a bar in the West Village of Manhattan. They not only bonded over jazz and traveling, but also their favorites on menu at the Millburn Deli in their hometown.
