The librarian’s book clubs, Uncle Dan’s nutrition lectures, and the putrid Ginkgo bushes⎯some aspects of alumna Amy Nelson’s, ’98, childhood home haven’t changed. 

Except now, alumni director Nelson walks into director of institutional relations Wendy Ross’s office to greet her colleague, rather than to hide from her after-school enrichment counselors. And Nelson, who once conspired to steal her sophomore English teacher Patricia Fels’s legendary yellow pen, is now married to the sophomore English teacher. 

Brooke Wells and Nelson were married New Year’s Eve at the home of Amy’s mother Julie Nelson, director of communications. Amy’s great uncle, a retired judge, along with former SCDS science teacher Adam Wymore, officiated at the wedding.

“Ideally we just wanted to have a party. We thought keeping it low-key and at home would accomplish that,” Nelson said. 

The ceremony was held in a tent in the Nelson backyard (around the corner from school), but the 120 guests could wander inside and between the Nelson and Wells houses⎯on either side of a duplex.  

Family members from as far as England and Australia attended the wedding.

“It was a communal effort. I believe when you have a wedding at home, you have to rely on friends and family,” Nelson said.

“It involved a lot of cooking.” 

Wells barbecued meat in the front yard, and the mothers of the bride and groom prepared soups. Guests Sally Nichols (former Country Day parent) and Ross baked desserts. 

“We liked the idea that everything eaten was prepared and handled by us,” Wells said. 

The couple also brewed their own beer for the wedding and served it to guests as they left.

“[The restaurant] Brew It Up walks you through the steps of making beer. We came up with the name Nuptiale,” Wells said.

According to guest Sue Nellis, head of high school, the wedding was untraditional in some aspects. 

There was no throwing of the bouquet, no veil, and no wedding cake. 

“There was a dessert bar, and I ended up making a small cookie cake, which our family makes for every holiday. But it wasn’t a wedding cake,” Nelson said. 

Nelson’s attire was also far from traditional. 

“I went by myself to the mall one day and bought three dresses from Macy’s. I ended up wearing one that was coincidentally white, but it was shorter and more casual than a normal wedding dress, and was $49 on sale.”

After helping plan the wedding of her twin sister, Beth, ’98, last fall, Amy realized she wanted something smaller, less traditional, and less formal. Beth’s wedding was als0 small, but it included a formal sit-down dinner.

Quaker traditions were also mixed into the ceremony, as Wells was raised as a Quaker. 

There was a brief ‘Quaker silence,’” Wells’s father sang during the ceremony, and guests signed the Quaker Wedding Certificate, pledging that they had witnessed the wedding. 

“It was moving seeing how much it meant to Brooke and Amy, but at the same time, there was some humor. It wasn’t the complete serious, solemn, religious ceremony I’ve known growing up as a Catholic,” teacher Richard Day said. 

Day, along with band director Bob Ratcliff and performing-arts chair Dan Ahlstrom provided music during the wedding. Students were also represented there. Seniors Katie Estep, Danielle Kesich, and Jordan Younger helped serve hors d’oevres. 

“The wedding was amazing. It was great to see them together and so in love, since you never really see that side of your teachers. But at Country Day the students know the teachers on a much more personal level,” Estep said.

The Country Day community has always been a large part of Nelson’s life. She was a Lifer, her father was the chair of the Board of Trustees, and her mother started working in the front office when Nelson was a freshman.

After graduating, Nelson majored in environmental science at the University of California, Berkeley. She then taught English as a second language in Prague, Czechoslavia.  

“It was a long way away. I’m very glad I did it, but I wanted to come home, and my mother wanted me back,” Nelson said. 

In 2004, director of admissions Lonna Bloedau offered Nelson a job. 

“For some people it may seem weird coming back after high school, but for me it wasn’t weird at all. I’d been there so long, and it felt right to be back,” Nelson said. 

She admits though, that she had difficulty adjusting to referring to her former teachers by their first names.

“I still call Ms. Nellis, ‘Ms.’ She taught me for three years,” she said.

Fels, history teacher Daniel Neukom, P.E. teacher Bill Stainbrook, and eighth-grade English teacher Lauren LaMay are among current faculty who also taught Nelson. 

“It’s part of the fun and sense of community of Country Day that one of my former students is a co-worker, and she is marrying a fellow teacher. That’s what makes [the wedding] warm and fuzzy,” Neukom said. 

Neukom and Fels are another couple that met at school (in 1976) and married over Winter Break. Coincidentally, Nelson and Wells spent one of their first dates at On the Y⎯the bar on the corner of Fulton and Munroe that advertises “the coldest beer in town”⎯the same place Neukom and Fels had their first date.

“We went during the daytime, so we didn’t realize until later that it was a heavy metal smoking bar,” Wells said. 

Nelson said she first met Wells when she was working in the admissions office and he came in to talk to Bloedau. They went out a couple of times with a group of teachers before they started dating in January 2005. 

“I kept thinking Mr. Wells was walking by my window a lot. All of a sudden I realized he was visiting the admissions office. He was talking to Amy,” Ross said.

 “I knew before they knew that they were destined to be a couple.” 

When he first met Nelson, Wells said he had another girlfriend. 

“Barbara Ore {former middle-school head] noticed I was spending a lot of time with Amy. She told me I needed to work out my situations,” Wells said.

“So I worked out my situation and started dating Amy.”

Wells waited until after Amy’s sister married before proposing.

Ten weeks before the wedding, Wells and Nelson submitted their announcement to the New York Times. 

Nelson said that if her wedding were to be announced in any paper, she wanted it to be that one. She was born in and debuted in New York City. 

“It used to be a society thing. Parents of the couple had to be someone or know someone important. But it’s more liberal now. Anyone can submit,” she said. 

A week before the wedding, Wells received    a call from the Times. 

“He thought they were calling for a subscription so he hung up. Later he called back when he realized they were calling about the announcement. The lady told him that was the first time anyone had ever hung up on her,” Nelson said. 

According to the announcement, “[Wells’s] mother is the author of books on gardening and the outdoors, including ‘100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names.’ His father is a printmaker and sculptor with work in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Library of Congress.” 

Submitting the announcement was originally Fels’s idea. Two of Nelson’s classmates, Taryn Tyler and Ann Nichols, also had their announcements published in the Times.

However, Tyler’s and Nichols’s weddings weren’t nearly as affiliated with their alma mater. In fact, nearly 40 percent of Nelson’s guests were part of the SCDS community.