WHIRL Weddings /

Nicole Roderick & Michael Ferketic


Though these high school sweethearts from Shaler Area went on to become college rivals, love, as always, conquered all. Michael, a University of Pittsburgh graduate, asked Nicole, then a student at Penn State University, to come home one weekend for a work party on the West End. Nearly there, Michael parked — pretending they were meeting friends who knew the rest of the way — and suggested they take a walk. Before Nicole knew it, they were standing at the top of the West End Overlook. “Is that Mt. Washington?” Michael said, pointing to the right. When Nicole looked back to her left, Michael was down on one knee. They married at Elfinwild Presbyterian Church and toasted their nuptials at the Pittsburgh Marriott North, where the couple’s maids of honor and best men (Nicole’s sisters and Michael’s brothers, respectively) performed a very special rap they’d written. “My cousin told me to make sure I step back, and take a look around because everything is just such a whirl,” says Nicole, who stopped dancing to see that every guest was dancing to the sounds of Cityscape, too.

Photography by Bella Pictures