Occasions

MARRIED
Dr. Eli and Lauren Van Allen
On Jan. 19, Lauren Kalvaria, walked down the path at the Cà d’Zan to meet her groom, Dr. Eli Van Allen, who stood patiently waiting for his bride under the chuppah.

The bride’s parents, Siesta Key residents Dr. Isaac and Vivien Kalvaria, escorted her down the isle.Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, of Chabad Lubavitch, conducted the nuptials.

After the open-air ceremony, 190 guests, including relatives and friends from all over the world, gathered on the Cà d’Zan terrace for cocktails before attending the reception on the bayfront promenade campiello.
Guests dined on grouper, seabass and vegetable torte before caterer Phil Mancini, of Michael’s On East, unveiled the display of desserts, including a crêpe bar.

The centerpieces carried the overall décor theme of white; they were made up of candles, white ranunculus, roses and baby’s breath that floated in vases of varying heights. The bride’s Stella York gown was purchased from Brides Against Breast Cancer.

Both the bride and groom attended undergraduate school at Stanford University, but they did not meet until years later when their mutual friend Peipei Li pestered Eli to contact Lauren. Finally, when Lauren, who was living in Chicago, visited her sister, Romy, in New York, Eli took the bus from Boston to met her. They continued to take turns going between cities until Lauren moved to Boston. They were engaged a year later.

Lauren, a former professional tennis player, has a master’s degree from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Business and is currently a brand manager at Keurig.

Eli received his medical degree from UCLA before accepting a research position at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he currently works.  

The bride’s father is a gastroenterologist and chief of medicine at Sarasota Memorial Hospital.

The bride and groom honeymooned in Turks and Caicos before they returned to their current home in Boston.

BORN
Louisa ‘Lulu’ Leiter
Sarasota native Meghan Leiter and her husband, Matt, welcomed the newest addition to their family, Louisa “Lulu” Davison Leiter, at 4:37 p.m. Jan. 21 at Prentice Women’s Hospital, in Chicago. Lulu weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces and was 20 inches long. Proud grandparents are Susan and Jon Fox, of Sarasota, and Tom and Barb Leiter, of Peoria, Ill. Proud aunts and uncles are Andrew and Paula Foley, of New York City, Nicholas Fox, of New Orleans, Alexandra Fox, of Los Angeles, Meg and Anne Leiter, of Chicago, and Elizabeth and Alexis Khazzam, of Peoria, Ill.

To see your own wedding, engagement, anniversary and birth annoucements in the Sarasota Observer, send your information to Jessica Luck at [email protected].