Real Wedding: Anastasia and Gregory

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Real Wedding: Anastasia and Gregory

After meeting at the Naval Medical Center, this couple tied the knot at the Naval Academy Chapel.By Irina Grechko

All photographs by Karen Santilli Photography.

Comments (0) | Published April 16, 2014

When Anastasia Pike met Gregory Chesnut at the National Naval Medical Center (now Walter Reed National Military Medical Center), it seemed like serendipity: She was a volunteer with the American Red Cross; he was a surgical intern. They decided to head to the Center’s coffee shop together for a brief first date, and both felt an instant connection. “We talked effortlessly—it felt like we were just catching up rather than meeting for the first time,” says Gregory, a urologist at the United States Navy. “Anna had to remind me that I was about to be late to start working in the ER, we had been talking for so long!”

After 15 months of dating, Gregory conspired with family friends to pop the question in time for a Sunday morning picnic on the Elizabeth River. “After a breakfast picnic, Gregory surprised me with a nervous one-kneed question,” says Anastasia, a member of the faculty at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. “We went straight to church afterward, but still had to wait eight months before walking down the aisle!” The wedding ceremony at the United States Naval Academy Chapel was followed by a reception at the Crofton Country Club.