SEQUIM — Ask Ken Feighner and his bride-to-be, Megg Berry, why they are getting married in a downtown coffee shop, and their answer is simple:
“We have a fondness for coffee shops,” Berry said Wednesday inside Suzon’s Coffee Lounge, 145 E. Washington St. at Lehman’s Court Shops, where they will tie the knot Saturday night.
Feighner, also known as “Coffee Ken,” has reviewed 141 coffee places around the U.S. through his blog, www.coffeeken.com, a website he said is intended to inform people about everything from business atmosphere and dating locale to family-friendly and coffee roasters.
He even invites readers to submit their own reviews of the mom-and-pop shops they like.
When friends suggested they marry in a coffee establishment, they laughed at first. But they thought about it awhile, concluding it made sense.
He’s a lover of drip Sumatra; she believes in the axiom that cream makes anything taste better.
Finds shops all over
Together, they look for coffee shops to review. He writes; she edits and throws in a dash of opinion along the way.
“He finds coffee shops everywhere,” she said.
“He looks for out-of-the-way places.”
They also needed Wi-Fi for the seven laptops they plan to set up so family guests can appear via Skype video phone, including Feighner’s best man, his brother, Mark, who could not be there physically.
Having the wedding party at her 2-month-old establishment is a thrill for Sue Buckley, whom Feighner and Berry knew when she worked at The Buzz coffee shop on North Sequim Avenue.
“They decided to get married here because they thought it was a beautiful place,” Buckley proudly said, and Berry agreed, saying, “We absolutely love the coffee shop here.”
Interestingly enough, they didn’t meet in a coffee shop.
They met at tango lessons in Berthoud, Colo., before they moved to Sequim more than a year ago to live near Carrie Blake Park.
Feighner plays bagpipes for the Korean War Veterans and will be dressed in a kilt for the wedding ceremony.
He recently performed for the American Veterans Traveling Tribute at Olympic Cellars Winery and plays for the Korean War Veterans at the replica Liberty Bell at Veterans Park on Lincoln Street the last Friday of every month to honor Clallam and Jefferson County war veterans who died during the month.
“I found it in a coffee shop,” he said with a smile, explaining how he landed the gig as a bagpiper with the Korean War Veterans.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.