Shore Thing

By Lisa Arnett
August 2026 View more Better Together

A waterfront wedding for a Jersey girl and her Chicago guy

Frank Becker was in high school when MTV’s Jersey Shore was in its heyday, and it remains one of his favorite shows. So imagine his delight more than a decade later when he matched on Hinge with New Jersey native Samantha Schultz in 2022. She had just moved to the Chicago area to attend grad school at Northwestern University. “I felt like I was meeting my own Sammy Sweetheart,” says Becker, an investment analyst at Citibank in Chicago. “One of the first questions I asked her was, ‘Are you a fan of Jersey Shore?’ She said ‘no,’ and my heart honestly sank.”

Turns out she wasn’t being entirely truthful. “I was just trying to see how he would respond,” Schultz says. Four months into dating, while visiting her family in New Jersey, she took Becker to see the iconic Jersey Shore boardwalks. “That’s when he told me he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me,” she says. After two years together, Becker proposed on Lighthouse Beach in Evanston followed by dinner at one of their favorite restaurants, Tapas Barcelona. “I had my parents decorate a table for us so when we walked in, there were candles and flowers everywhere,” he says. They planned to marry after Schultz graduated and started work as a pediatric speech therapist.

Their search for a waterfront wedding venue led them to Riverside Receptions in Geneva. They included their siblings and cousins in their wedding party, and their two brothers-in-law teamed up to officiate their March 28 ceremony overlooking the Fox River. “We’re big family people, and we wanted to share our day with them,” Schultz says. Becker gifted Schultz his grandfather’s diamond-studded wedding band. “Sam was my grandpa’s name, and when we went to get it sized down, [the jeweler] noticed there was engraving inside the band that said, ‘Sam Love You.’ ”

The couple was so charmed by the Fox Valley that they decided to buy a home in Batavia. They’re settling into their newlywed era by rewatching all the seasons of Jersey Shore as well as keeping up a tradition they started early in their relationship: “We write each other a card every month about how much we love each other,” Schultz says. “Now we’re in year 4, and we have boxes of love notes.”

Wedding Details

Venue and catering
Riverside Receptions, Geneva

Bride’s attire
Martina Liana from Mira Couture, Chicago

Bridemaids’ attire
Azazie

Groom’s and groomsmen’s attire
The Black Tux, Chicago

Rings
David Kohler Jewelers, Norridge

Florals
Hearts & Flowers, Tinley Park

Dessert
Cake and desserts by Mad Batter Bakery and Confections, St. Charles; cannoli by Cannoli Boy, Chicago

Entertainment
DJ Matt Roan, Chicago

Photography
Rachael Watson Photography

Photos: Rachael Watson Photography