THE BOOMERS STORY

Jonathan and Victoria Wakely on their wedding day!

Victoria Powers and Jonathan Wakely first met at a mutual friend’s back yard garden party back in the summer of 2008. They had both married right out of college and had now recently found themselves single after long marriages. Victoria walked into the party and Jonathan was sitting on the back deck playing “Here Comes the Sun” by George Harrison on his acoustic guitar. Victoria knew that song well, as she was a baby boomer too, and went right over to him, picked up the little red egg shaker in his guitar case and began singing along with him. Little did she know that within a year, the two of them would be performing together as the  “Boomers” in a duo band around the triangle!

Their first date, December 28, 2008, was to dinner at a cute little Italian restaurant on Capital Boulevard called Casa Linga. When he came to pick her up, she invited him in for a cocktail and some blue cheese and  crackers. They talked and learned that they had much in common. They were both one of 5 siblings and were both the middle children. They both grew up in bi-cultural households…his mother was Italian and her mother was Puerto Rican.

Even though they had both been in North Carolina for many years, they both had grown up out of State….he in the Chicago suburbs, and she in the University town of Newark Delaware. They both exercised regularly….he lifting weights and running, and she swimming, biking and hiking. They cared about the health of the planet and the health of world politics. And they both loved the arts…music, visual arts, theater, movies, dance. He opened the door for her when they got into his little black Pontiac Solstice Sports car to head to dinner and she knew he was a gentleman.

Jonathan had been working in Pharmaceutical Sales in the Chicago area, and then after moving to North Carolina in 1997, worked as a manager for Glaxo Smith Kline in the research triangle area. He had been playing guitar for 20 years when Victoria met him. He is a huge Chicago Bears football fan, and the professional football season has him glued to the TV to follow all the NFL teams, always rooting for the “hated Green Bay Packers” to loose!  He is a huge car guy and loved and owned all types of motor vehicles from snow mobiles, wave runners, to motorcycles and corvettes. He impressed Victoria with how he could identify any car, anywhere, with his knowledge of cars, their make, model and stats.

When they first met, Victoria, as a career teacher with Wake County School Systems, and a National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) art educator, had just won the Elementary Art Teacher of the year award for 2008-2009 for the State of North Carolina. She was also volunteering at her church as a Stephen Minister, and as the Elementary Division Chair for the North Carolina Art Educators Association NCAEA. As a professional artist, Victoria had been exhibiting her own artwork in solo and juried shows since 1988. And, even though she had grown up with music, singing in church and school choirs and choruses, and studying piano for 6 years, it had been a long time since she had been involved in performance art. Most recently, Victoria had worked for six years, 1986-1992, as a Petite ( 5’4” and shorter) professional runway fashion model with Belk, Thalhimer’s, Macys Department stores, and with the Esteem Fashion Model Agency in Raleigh.

When Jonathan first came to dinner at Victoria’s home after their first date, he brought his guitar. She could not concentrate on making dinner with him playing so nearby because she wanted so much to join him! So, she made a deal with him….”come help me with dinner in the kitchen and I will give you my undivided attention with musical support after dinner”. And that led to finding that they could actually “make music” together!  It wasn’t long after that Jonathan talked Victoria into getting up on stage to play 3 songs at an open mic in  Durham at City Beverage. She was scared to death but found that once she got on stage, all fear fell away and that it was actually a LOT of fun to perform in front of a live audience! The open mics led to paid “gigs” around the triangle area.Fast forward to 2018 when Victoria and Jonathan were planning a trip to celebrate being together as a couple and a duo for ten years and to celebrate Jonathan’s up –coming retirement. They decided on a trip with UNC-Chapel Hill’s alumni group, Victoria’s alma mater, to the Amalfi Coast. It was in Sorrento, over dinner in a restaurant on the water, with Mt. Vesuvius and the sun setting in the background, that Jonathan got down on one knee and presented Victoria with a ring and asked her to marry him. You could not have picked a more romantic setti ng. Victoria said yes.

Back home, they began preparing to marry, which meant renovating Jonathan’s recently purchased “fixer upper” home, and getting Victoria’s home of over 30 years, ready for the market. This all had to be taken care of before the wedding planning could begin. Then came the Pandemic which slowed things down considerably. But, Victoria and Jonathan persevered and in the fall of 2022, Victoria sold her home andbought a small cottage at  the coast. She figured they were used to owning two homes and having one at the beach would be a lot more fun than having one right down the street in Raleigh!  And so they began wedding planning in earnest, looking at wedding venues both in Emerald Isle and in Raleigh.

Victoria and Jonathan decided on a very small immediate family only wedding in Raleigh at Victoria’s home church White Memorial  Presbyterian. The list started at 60 people, who included their siblings, their nieces and nephews, and everyone’s significant others, and their children. Victoria and Jonathan’s own children and grandchildren were attendants in the wedding. Victoria’s son John walked her down the aisle to “Here comes the Sun”. Victoria’s daughter Beth was her maid of honor, and Jonathan’s son in-law Chris was his best man. The other attendants included Jonathan’s daughter Lindsey, and Victoria’s daughter- in -law Alexis and Victoria’s three grandchildren, Cassidy, Autry and Todd Michael.

Jonathan’s 98 year old mother and a few others were unable to attend, but thankfully the church was able to do a live stream video for them which they were able to watch from home and to be with us “virtually”.

 It was a very intimate and special wedding.

Since everyone in the wedding, and coming to the wedding, was from out of town, Victoria and Jonathan wanted to make sure everyone was looked after. They had a welcome reception with dinner at the wedding hotel Friday evening, the wedding and reception on Saturday, and a farewell coffee at their newly blended home in Raleigh on Sunday morning. The following Saturday, they flew to Kauai, Hawaii for their honeymoon week, and got to go to a Luau, and do a helicopter tour of the island of “Jurassic Park” fame flying into the crater of an extinct volcano! It was so exciting and beautiful!

Today, Victoria and Jonathan continue to play their music, the songs that influenced the “Baby Boomer" generation, “fun songs, love songs, and  songs that care about the world”, in and around the triangle, and on the coast, and enjoy spending time in both locations enjoying the “best of both worlds”.

For more information about the Boomers, please check out their website at www.TheBoomersDuo.com