Work/Love
In it together
For some Wilmington couples, marriage is a partnership at home as well as the office.
Whether dealing with the same clients or building a business from the ground up, working together brings it own kind of rewards as well as challenges.
After all, there’s no clocking out when it comes to love.
FOLK'S CAFE owners TAMMY and JUAN PACINI run the Princess Street coffee shop and roaster, cooking for the menu and taking care of the business together.
“It’s like normally when you work at one place, you have your own space. You have your own stories to tell at the end of the day. What do you tell your spouse if you’re working with him?” – Tammy
JOHN D. MARTIN is managing partner of CRANFILL SUMNER & HARTZOG'S Wilmington office, and COLLEEN SHEA is a partner at the same law firm.
“All we did was work together. I guess it was sort of meant to be, which is sort of cliché, but it also goes to show how well we work together. We had a lot of our clients go to our wedding” – Colleen
“Because we both do the same thing, it makes it easier for us to understand what each other is dealing with.
If I’m at trial, she understands I’m gone. If she’s meeting with an expert, and she’s not going to be home until 10 o’clock at night, I understand that.” – John
MICHELLE and JOHN SAVARD own WILMINGTON HOMEBREW SUPPLY, which caters to homebrewers. They are in the middle of a major project – opening a new location this spring on South Kerr Avenue that will include a brewery and taproom.
“I remember going to visit him at the brew shop he worked at (during college) … I went to visit him, and a truck came in. He was unpacking it, and I stayed to help him, and I had this moment. I was like, we can do this in Wilmington.” – Michelle
“We have little nuances that people wouldn’t pick up on, but because we’ve been together for so long (seven years), if she’s having trouble with a customer, I can see it in her twitch, and boom, I’m over there.” –John
CHRISTI FERRETTIand KATHY WEBB-FERRETTI are co-owners of PINE VALLEY MARKET, a breakfast and lunch café that also happens to be a catering operation, butcher shop, and gourmet food store, which keeps things busy for the couple.
“You know what each other is doing pretty much all the time. You have the same common goals together. I feel it’s more of a unity, because you’re in it together – sink or swim … It makes us pretty protective of one another.” – Kathy
“Owning a business together certainly does not fix things. It just highlights the things that might already be weak. And so, if you don’t trust the person and you don’t already know that you’re compatible and that you complement each other, it’s just going to magnify the negatives and be worse tenfold.” – Christi
To view more of photographer Katherine Clark's work, go to www.katherineclarkphotography.com.
