They met in 2020 while skating at an ice rink in Pennsylvania, and they’ve been skating together ever since. During the week, they got up at 5:00 am to meet and practice their ice dancing before each headed off to work.

Then on Christmas eve 2023, in an exquisitely charming moment on the ice at the Rockefeller Center in New York City, Denis dropped to one knee and looked up at Andrea. “I love you so much. Will you marry me?”

Andrea Bergeron enjoyed roller skating as a child, but she had never once skated on ice until adulthood. “When I graduated from college,” she says, “I really just wanted a hobby. I was working in finance and didn’t want my life to be about just going to work and coming home to sleep. I needed something for myself, so I started figure skating in my 20s and haven’t looked back. I just love it.”

Andrea and Denis skating together, hand in hand, on the ice in the 1980 Rink in Lake Placid.

Denis Shahvorostov (pronounced “Shock Va Rostov”) started even later. Though he never played hockey he began skating in his home country of Belarus on hockey skates, simply because he wanted to learn to skate. He moved to New Jersey in 2019, and it wasn’t long until one day, while continuing his skating, he met Andrea. His initial suggestion they try ice dancing together, prompted Andrea to respond, “Buy some figure skates and then we’ll talk.”

After trading in his hockey skates for figure skates, it wasn’t long until the two were skating regularly together. “We’re on the ice every morning before work,” says Andrea. “And we have great coaches, also a husband and wife team, Otar & Angelina Japaridze from the Skating Club of Southern New Jersey.”

Having visited Lake Placid with college roommates, Andrea knew Denis would enjoy some time in the Olympic Village. “I just had to come back with Denis,” she says. “It’s so beautiful. We ended up going for New Years 2021 into 2022, and both of us tried downhill skiing for the first time. We did cross country skiing at Mt Van Hoevenberg. And, obviously, we skated, too, at the Olympic Center practically every day. We had an amazing time and have every time we’ve come back since. Now, whenever we want to go somewhere, we just look at each other and know it has to be Lake Placid.”

Now they come in every season to skate, ski, hike, kayak, ride the water bikes on Mirror Lake, and more. Says Andrea, “There are just so many things to do. More than we even have time for. So we keep coming back.”

When the time came to think about wedding arrangements, it didn’t take long for them to decide on Lake Placid. “His family is in Belarus,” says Andrea. “My family is from New Hampshire. We live in New Jersey, and our friends are all over. No matter where we go for our wedding, everyone has to travel, so why don’t we just pick our favorite place?”

Andrea and Denis embrace at their wedding ceremony under frame of fall leaves with Mirror Lake in the background.

The decision was simple, and this September 2024, amidst sunny skies and brilliant fall foliage, Andrea and Denis were joined in marriage on the shores of Mirror Lake in the village they both adore. About 100 of their closest family and friends made the trip to witness their exchange of vows and join the couple in celebrating their union. Their guests came from all over the U.S. and several other countries, and for nearly all of them, it was their first time in Lake Placid.

Making the week a unique one among wedding celebrations and one extra special for the bride and groom was securing Olympic Center ice time in the 1980 Herb Brooks Areana on each of three days following the wedding. “We rented the ice to have everyone come and join us for skating,” says Andrea. “We had the chance to skate with so many of our friends and family, some of whom are skaters and some are not. Even the morning of the wedding, Denis and I were on the ice skating, and it was super special for us to be able to integrate that into our wedding day and to be able to spend time together in that way.”

Of the 100 who came for the wedding, Andrea counted 60 people who joined them on the ice. Others joined in by watching from the seats in the rink, coming to see the couple skate and, understandably, to see the historic Miracle on Ice rink, too. “It’s such an iconic venue,” says Andrea, “to be able to now only show our friends this place but also to skate there with them was extra special. The ice was perfect, and since the renovations, everything looks so beautiful.”

After their first meeting on the ice, after falling in love on the ice, and after becoming fiancées on the ice, this happy couple enjoyed a week of celebrating their union on the ice in a place practically born of ice. A place they both love the more than any other – Lake Placid.

“We both work really hard and give our jobs 100%. But we also strike a balance between what’s important to us, and we skate together because we love it. We’ve had some injuries that have prevented us from skating at the level we ultimately want to, but we always support one another, and we keep progressing in our skating and doing this thing we love.”

Denis and Andrea walking together back up the aisle after their wedding ceremony, guests standing and congratulating them on both sides.

One thing Andrea wants everyone to know is that although skating is so often considered an activity or sport for young people, it’s something anyone can do an any age. “I know people who have started in their 60s,” she says. “They put in the time and effort, and end up falling in love with it. Every day you do it, it gives you back something to enjoy for yourself.”

It’s a sport that has certainly given back to Andrea and Denis, from bringing them together in the first place to building a life together to staying active and doing something they love. Together.

Andrea and Denis skating together backward on the ice inside the 1980 Rink in the Olympic Center.