GREEN BAY - When James McKenzie-Brown came to Wisconsin from the United Kingdom, he didn’t just fall head over heels forPatiHolschbach.
He fell in love withKwikTrip, too.
It wasHolschbachfirst, mindyou, and thepopular Wisconsin-based convenience store chain second. That’s important to note in a love story that spans 3,903 miles, two and half years and countless Big Buddy fountain drinks.
When it came to their wedding day on March 29, it just seemed right that it was all three of them — a nurse from Green Bay, an armed police officer from London andKwikTrip store No. 827 on Lombardi Avenue — together in their photos.
Love, Wisconsin style.
To appreciate the sweetness of the photo shoot, at a gas station on the happiest day of their lives,youhave to first get to know the couple.
“To tell people our story of how we began, if anybody else would tell me this story, it would sound kind of, I would say, crazy,”Holschbachsaid.
The two met on Tinder. She was living in Milwaukee at the time and had the distance for potential matches on the dating app set to within 80 miles. He was inTwickenham, just outside London, and had his set to 10 miles. There were 3,903 miles and a whole big pond between them. Their profiles should never have crossed paths but somehow they did.
Love works in mysterious ways.
Within 24 hours, they were talking. Eighteen days later, on Dec. 8, 2021, he flew to Wisconsin to see her. From the moment they said hello to one another, it felt different.
“We both just knew,”Holschbachsaid.
They felt incredibly comfortable around each other and discovered they had similar senses of humor. They had both chosen the careers they did, because they wanted to help people. They both enjoyed going to estate sales and looking for antiques.
“But one of the things that really attracted me to him and him to me was we both absolutely love animals, like we’re obsessed with dogs and cats,” she said. “We’re the kind of people where anytime we see a dog, we have to point it out, like it’s our first time seeing a dog.”
It wasHolschbach’selderly 15-year-old rescuepitbull, Minnie, who sealed the deal. An excellent judge of character but leery of men due to her past, the first thing she did when McKenzie-Brown came to visit was climb right into his lap and snuggle in.
“She wouldn’t even climb in my lap and I was her mom,”Holschbachsaid. “Then I just instantly knew. ‘Yep, this is the one.’”
They were engaged on April 13, 2022 — four months and five days after they met.
Big Buddy drinks are their go-to, but you can't beat the fried chicken
Before they could marry, they had to secure a K-1 visa, which allows aU.S. citizen to bring afiancéorfiancéeto the country for the purpose of marriage and becoming a lawful permanent resident. It was a process that stretched across nearly two years and required many back-and-forth trips.
That’s whereKwikTrip enters the story.
McKenzie-Brown found himself “enthralled with all that is Midwest culture” whenever he came to visit. Potluck staples — can’t-miss fare like walking tacos,scotcheroos, Snickers salad and especially beer dip — fascinated him. Being from the U.K., where people love nothing more than to talk about the weather, he also appreciated Wisconsin’s four seasons, sometimes all in the same week, as a goldmine of conversation.
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Holschbachgrew up in Green Bay and graduated from Green Bay East HighSchool in 1996. She was well acquainted with the joys ofKwikTrip and its status as a Wisconsin institution. She knew her future husband had to experience it for himself.
“He was like, ‘Youwant to take me to a gas station?’” she said. “I’m like, ‘Yes! Butyoujust wait,youjust wait.’”
He was immediately smitten. He loved it all, from the feeling thathehad just walked into a little city all onto itself to thesignature “see ya next time” from the clerk on his way out the door.
During the couple’s many trips back and forth to the airport or on the drive up to Green Bay to see Holschbach’sparents,KwikTrips became a part of their lives. Their go-to is the Big Buddy fountain soda, but theGlazers doughnuts,Cinnaboncinnamon roll-flavored cappuccinos and the cheesy chicken casserole are also among their favorites.
“Andyoucan’t beat their fried chicken,”Holschbachsaid. “Their fried chicken is really good.”
After the ceremony at the Brown County Courthouse, it was off to Kwik Trip on Lombardi Avenue
One of the conditions of being issued a K-1 visa is that once the fiancé comes to the United States, the couple has just 90 days to get married. That makes planning a large, elaborate wedding nearly impossible, soHolschbachand McKenzie-Brown opted for a small, intimate ceremony with family and a few friends.
There were two things they knew they wanted to be part of the day.
One was a hand-tied bridal bouquet of five dozen white carnations from Petal Pusher Floral Boutique in the Broadway District. Holschbachhad worked for owner Nichole Campbell years ago and adored that same bouquet Petal Pusher had created for a wedding expo. She never forgot it.
The other was to have photos taken atKwikTrip by Erika Krause Photography. Holschbach has known her for 14 years, ever since she was the labor and delivery nurse assigned to the birth ofher second child at Aurora BayCare and then again for her third child.Krause was excited to do her first bride-and-groom-at-KwikTrip photo session.
More:'See ya next time': How a neighborhood grocery store grew into today's Kwik Trip phenomenon
After the couple exchanged vows in a civil ceremony at the Brown County Courthouse, they headed toa KwikTrip, where the employee in charge told them not only was it OK to shoot photos inside the store but that it happens all the time.
“They were just the nicest bunch of people,”Holschbachsaid.
They even gave thema complimentary doughnut as a prop. There are shots of the happy couple with intertwined arms with Big Buddy cups, sharing a smooch in one of the aisles and standing by a cooler door that reads “Cold Beer Enter Here.”
Two of their favorites portraits were taken outside, withHolschbach’sbouquet and McKenzie-Brown’s mini Union Jack flag outshone only by the smiles on their faces.
You might be wondering if there was aKwikTrip-themed wedding dinner with fancy three-tiered plates ofGlazers, platters of fried chicken and barbecue pork rib sandwiches and baskets of reasonably priced bananas. There was not. They did their dining at Italian restaurant Angelina in downtown Green Bay.
Years from now, when they look back at the photographs taken at store No. 827, what might they think?
“I’m sure we’ll probably say, ‘Oh my God, we really had our pictures taken at a gas station.' But that’s just part of our personality,”Holschbachsaid. “We’ll just more so, I think, remember it for how much fun it was and just how happy everyone was and how supportive they were. It was a great day. It was a very joyous day ... and that’s conveyed in the pictures.”
The couple, who just moved to Kimberly, already know how they’ll celebrate their anniversary each year: a fountain drink atKwikTrip and dinner at Angelina.
Kendra Meinertis an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 orkmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on X@KendraMeinert.
