East End couple tie the knot in free $65,000 wedding after winning Veterans Day contest: ‘absolutely beautiful’

Before Emily Mae Siegel helped Jacob Feibusch build an oyster business, she was the familiar face at the gate when he launched his boat from the dock.

They had known each other since kindergarten in Kings Park, though Mr. Feibusch said his early memories were mostly of riding the school bus with her. Those dockside encounters reconnected them in 2020.

Now both 27 and living in Cutchogue, the former classmates are husband and wife.

They exchanged vows last Sunday at Brecknock Hall in Greenport as winners of Peconic Landing’s 14th annual Veterans Day Wedding Giveback.

Local businesses — including The Suffolk Times’ parent company Times Review Media Group — and volunteers provided a celebration valued at about $65,000, according to Peconic Landing, in recognition of Mr. Feibusch’s military service.

The ceremony at the historic hall on the grounds of Peconic Landing, attended by about 80 friends and relatives, came three days before Veterans Day.

“We probably would have just gone out to dinner and gone to the courthouse,” said Mr. Feibusch, an Army reservist, of what they would have done without the giveaway.

The couple described being overwhelmed by the ceremony during the postcard-perfect fall afternoon on the North Fork.

“Being able to dance with my whole family and Jacob and his whole family, and see everybody join together and celebrate, was just absolutely beautiful,” said Ms. Siegel, who teaches seventh-grade English in the Eastport-South Manor Central School District.

Her students are eager to see the wedding pictures, she told The Suffolk Times on Tuesday. The couple said they were still looking through photos and reliving the day.

Mr. Feibusch owns Davy Jones Shellfish Company, a 20-acre oyster farm off Robins Island, south of New Suffolk Point. He also serves on the Long Island Farm Bureau board and as treasurer of the Long Island Oyster Growers Association.

Ms. Siegel remembers the day he announced he wanted to start the business.

“I kind of looked at him like he was a little bit crazy, but I supported him 100%,” she said. “I knew he would be able to build something successful.”

Mr. Feibusch said she has become “a pillar and a sounding board” as the business has grown and he has hired a crew.

“She’s my best friend, but she also provides some reality checks for me sometimes, whether it’s a good day or a bad day,” he said.

Mr. Feibusch said she also steps in when his Army duties pull him away, handling deliveries and farm work. His current military schedule is typically one weekend a month and two weeks a year.

Their honeymoon in French Polynesia will wait until next month. First, Mr. Feibusch has to finish preparing the oyster beds for winter.

“I won’t lie, it’s extremely difficult,” Mr. Feibusch said of balancing his military service with the oyster business.

With livestock to tend, long absences are hard to manage, he said. His unit tries to accommodate his work, “but sometimes they can’t.”

Mr. Feibusch said he signed his first Army contract Aug. 31, 2017, when he was 18.

“I wanted to learn, be a part of something bigger and do something I was proud of,” he said.

He serves as a brigade human resources officer with the 2nd Brigade Headquarters, 78th Training Division in Newport, R.I. His honors include two Army Achievement Medals, one recognizing his work during Operation Freedom Shield in South Korea.

Ms. Siegel comes from a a military family. Both her father and grandfather served in the Army, with her grandfather seeing acton in both the Korean and Vietnam wars, she said.

The couple learned about the wedding program through an article in The Suffolk Times. They found out they had won during a surprise reveal at Peconic Landing on May 14, with relatives joining in person and via Zoom.

A panel of Peconic Landing members with military ties chooses the winners based on their service, military honors and personal love story.

“Their deep connection to the North Fork makes it especially meaningful to celebrate their marriage here at Brecknock Hall,” said Robert J. Syron, Peconic Landing’s president and CEO. “We are honored to recognize Jacob’s service to our country and to share this special day with them.”

Applications for the 2027 Wedding Giveback will be posted in January at brecknockhall.com.

Mr. Feibusch said he was “grateful beyond words” to live in a community where such a celebration is an annual tradition, and that the time, effort and attention to detail behind it meant everything to the couple.

“It really made us feel so loved and appreciated and allowed us to have the greatest night of our lives thus far,” he said.