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 What she’s learned: “Proposing is a very big deal for the groom, you don’t realize what a vulnerable position he’s putting himself in
– not that I’d ever have said no, but this is the moment everyone’s going to ask about, hear about and judge.”
So says Teresa Strasser, Emmy-winning writer, co-host of the syndicated daily radio show “The Adam Carolla Show,” as well as cable TV’s “Watercooler” and bride-to-be. The busy brunette will marry financier Daniel Wachinski this summer.
And Strasser, who’s always been a “guy’s girl,” keeping her own amongst Carolla of “The Man Show,” planned a wedding that most men would dream of – they’re going to Vegas with an entourage and [entire] guest list of 14.
So how did Strasser – and Wachinski get so lucky? Theirs was a story of meet cute and keep cute, a relationship which they both knew, nearly instantly, was for the long haul.
San Francisco native Strasser moved to Los Angeles, hoping to get work as a writer – she was a reporter for a weekly in San Francisco. But when she got to Los Angeles, she toyed with the idea of being an on-air personality. But during auditions, she found, she said, that “everyone in room was prettier and thinner.” She jumped on the bandwagon and lost weight, but found a job as a writer on “Win Ben Stein’s Money.” She received an Emmy in 2000 for her work.
But the lure of television then led her to a 50-episode hosting gig on TLC’s popular “While You Were Out.” Two years ago, she landed the role as acerbic Carolla’s quick thinking, tolerant and funny sidekick. A few months after she started the radio job, she became Jon Fugelsang’s co-host on TV Guide Network’s “Watercooler.”
While Strasser loved both jobs, her daily schedule of 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. didn’t lend itself to meeting quality men, and the ones she did meet, through her My Space page for example, were fodder for comedy.
On Carolla’s popular syndicated radio show, Strasser’s “love life is an open book.” She admits, “it wasn’t a good thing for the guys I was dating, but I had a horrible love life and it made for good radio.”
Then on Saturday, May 12, 2007, Strasser went to a “super-secret” audition – Fox was looking for a replacement for host Chelsea Handler for their (now-defunct) reality television series, “On The Lot.” “They wanted to hire someone right away, and since it was [Steven] Spielberg, they had me do the whole hair and makeup thing.” Even though going out on a Saturday night wasn’t something she normally did, “all my girlfriends were going out to Dominic’s on Third [in West Hollywood, Calif.] I had whole hair and makeup thing going, so I went.”
Strasser’s group of nine (including a couple of guy friends) were sitting across from another large group, that included Wachinski. Then one of Strasser’s pals spotted Wachinski telling her he was “her type..”
But Strasser was convinced Wachinski was “too cute not to have a girlfriend. In my head, I created this whole imaginary girlfriend and in my little scenario, it ended with me hating her.”
Eventually fate conspired. It turned out that friend of friend’s was sitting at Wachinski’s table and encouraged him to meet Strasser. They spoke for about a half hour, he asked for her number and she handed him her business card.
“I thought she was gorgeous, smart and funny and down-to-earth and sweet, and I’ve got to play it as cool as I could,” Wachinski says, “I had this very uncool job [he works in finance for IBM] but I do play guitar so I wanted to play that up.”
“My cell phone number was on it,” she says, but Wachinski interpreted it as “kind of cold,” assuming that Strasser “wasn’t that into me.”
Wachinski waited what he felt was the requisite proper time (three days) and finally called Strasser who was on her way, an hour across town, to do Greg Gutfeld’s show “Red Eye.” “I know this sounds counterintuitive,” she explains, “but we had a really great conversation about math. I love physics and science.”
She accepted a date and Wachinski took her to the Moroccan restaurant, Tangiers.
Once Strasser ordered her drink of choice, Jameson’s Neat, Wachinski was hooked. So was Strasser, who describes him as “so polite in his demeanor, so serene, smart and lighthearted.”
Despite the fact that she was comfortable being “open and honest” about her personal life, once she met Wachinski, she begged him not to listen to the radio show. “I wanted him to get to know me, not the me that’s on the radio.” Despite the temptation, Wachinski managed to follow her edict.
A month after meeting, Strasser was at Wachinski’s house, and the couple were watching a “Deliver Us From Evil, “ a documentary about a molesting priest. “We were making all kinds of completely inappropriate jokes, “ about Catholic Wachinski’s family, says the Jewish Strasser, when he suddenly asked her "to go steady." This was a relief to Strasser who says, “I wasn’t sure if he was in as I was.”
A week later, he says, they professed “the L-word.”
Theirs was a near-nstant love match. “Two or three months into it,” says Strasser, “We knew. We said if we ever got married, we’d be like Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio and get married at City Hall.” Four months later, they moved in together. “Not that I’d recommend that for everyone,” she says. “But it worked for us.”
Then, it was Valentines, 2008. “Everyone kept saying he was going to propose,” says Strasser, but by mid-day she was convinced he wasn’t. She even made a bet with her mother. “I got up that morning and there were balloons and flowers in every room, the bedroom, the bathroom, my closet, the living room, the kitchen, every room I go in.” So she assumed that was her VD present.
He took her to Little Dom’s in Los Feliz, an off-shoot of the restaurant where they first met. This one was in their neighborhood. “It was an early dinner,” she says, since “I have this schedule [she wakes up at 4 a.m., is at the radio show until 11 a.m. and Watercooler I the afternoons; she’s in bed by 8 or 8:30 p.m.].
But when they got home, more presents were wrapped. A fan of rubber duckies, she opened her first rush-wrapped (“it was totally wrapped by a guy”) rubber duck. Strassers everyday jewelry includes two Helen Ficalora discs, with her initials, T. and S. Around the neck was Ficalora disc with the initial W. The next gift revealed two rubber ducks, each with rings around their neck, a man’s and a woman’s wedding ring.
“I blacked out,” Strasser says, recalling only that Air Supply was on the radio (Wachinski had put on the “heart” station on their XM satellite radio).
“Proposing,” she now says in retrospect, “was very nerve wracking. I’m glad I didn’t have to do it. The whole thing was like the solo ouster of a country, the way he had things mapped out.
“”He just takes care of business,” says a clearly impressed Strasser. “I love that. Love it.”
“I’d been giving it all serious thought for at least a couple of months,” says Wachinski. “After I broke out the L-word, I guess it was a serious three months of planning.”
Her ring was exactly what she wanted, not a mined diamond, but a cultured diamond, which “everyone is always asking, is it a cubic zironimum? And I explain, no, it’s completely a diamond, it’s chemically a diamond, but it’s manufactured in a lab.” She sighs, “I’m in show business, I know how these things go. Diamonds are artificially
inflated. A girl’s best friend is a nest egg.” The cushion-cut canary diamond, which is offset with two white sapphires is set in platinum.
Wachinski enlisted the help of the couple’s friend Ben Mankiewicz (a host on Turner Classic Movies), whose jeweler, Joe Malamed, worked with Wachinski to design the ring.
Then came the wedding talk, “It’ easy to talk a big game, say city hall,” says Strasser, who realized, along with Wachinski, that "it was rude not to invite your parents," so she chose the proverbial “guy’s” choice and suggested Las Vegas. They’ll marry June 25 at The Venetian with a core group of 16 people (and that includes the two of them). “They have everything there for you,” she says of the hotel/casino, “the chapel, your bouquet, your cake, your reception.”
After the proposal, Wachinski’s plan was to leave it up to Strasser. “I had no idea about a wedding, I always thought I’d be at the mercy of my bride. I assumed I’d have a big traditional wedding, not that I wanted it, but that’s what people do. But she and I share the same feelings about crowds. I’ve never thrown a party in my life. I’d have all this anxiety about whether or not everyone was going to have a good time, do I have enough food and drinks, all these crazy things. And we just both don’t like being the center of attention.”
After talking, the couple decided that they wanted to share, in some way, the day with their friends and co-workers, but were determined to remain, “pragmatic. If we can’t afford it, we’re not doing it. It’s hard because the bridal industry is so suggestive.” 
So at the suggestion of Contessa Mankiewicz, Ben’s wife, they’re holding a follow up reception on July 12 at downtown Los Angeles’ Central Library. With wedding planner Michelle Buckley at the helm, they’ll serve appetizers, drinks (Jameson’s, of course), and cupcakes, “There’s not going to be an extravagant sit-down, it just for everyone to have a good time and make a toast. I promised Daniel when we were first dating that I wouldn’t make him dance in public,” so no dance. “It’s a big cocktail party, we don’t want anyone inconvenienced, just to have fun.”
“The only question,” says Strasser, “was what I was going to wear.” While Strasser remembers it as Wachinski’s suggestion, and he remembers it as hers, the end result is that Strasser will wear Wachinski’s sister Lynn’s wedding gown, as a tribute to Lynn, who died, with her husband of three years, in an Atlanta car crash, 10 years ago.
“I was the last one in our family who saw Lynn,” says Wachinski. “She had a big wedding in [our hometown] downtown Philadelphia. It was an amazing, glorious occasion that she and my mom planned together.”
“Vegas and reception felt like us,” Strasser says, “and we really wanted to do something to honor Lynn, I wanted it to be appropriate.” Strasser had no idea what Lynn’s dress was like, what size Lynn was, and when Wachinski’s mother sent her Lynn’s dress, fully preserved and boxed, she held her breath as she opened it. Not only was it a gorgeous Vera Wang dress, it fit her perfectly, without any altering.
“It’s such a big gesture, a huge gesture and makes me feel so embraced by his family.”
Says Wachinski, by having Strasser wear his sister’s dress, “it’s our way of remembering her.
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