Angel on Shoulder Led Segerstrom to Altar

In case you’re wondering, there was no pre-nup.

“It would have turned the marriage into a business arrangement,” said Henry T. Segerstrom, back in Orange County with his bride on Wednesday after a courtship and wedding that give new meaning to the term “whirlwind.”

Segerstrom quietly married Elizabeth Macavoy on July 29 at the St. Regis hotel in New York, three weeks after they met.

He’s: 77; arts philanthropist; managing partner of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, which owns South Coast Plaza; a member of one of Orange County’s wealthiest families.

She’s: 45, clinical psychologist, self-help book author, fashionable New Yorker.

News of the wedding spread quickly in Orange County business and arts circles--and questions of how the couple got together have hung in the air.

Here’s how they say it happened:

They met at the St. Regis on July 8 as each dined alone in the same restaurant.

He was in New York conducting business on behalf of the Orange County Performing Arts Center. She was relaxing after a hectic workday and doing some paperwork.

He spotted her shuffling papers and jokingly asked if she was “doing her homework.” He joined her at her table and they immediately hit it off.

After a courtship that included dinners at chic restaurants and serenades at her favorite piano bar at Hotel Pierre, the couple decided to marry. “It was mutual--I wanted to be with him and I knew he wanted to marry me, so he said it and I said it,” Elizabeth said.

The couple exchanged vows in a hotel suite that had been transformed into a “shrine of love with flowers and candles,” she said.

A hexagonal-shaped emerald engagement ring and a wedding band of diamonds sparkled on her left hand as she lunched with her new husband Wednesday at Pinot Provence restaurant in Costa Mesa. A simple gold band gleamed on his left hand.

Why the rush to marry?

“I didn’t have a choice,” Henry said, reaching out to clasp the fingers of his auburn-haired bride. “I didn’t think I would ever have a love like this again.”

It’s his third marriage; her second.

Henry’s wife of nearly 20 years, Renee Segerstrom, died at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach on June 7. She was 72.

“I didn’t know Elizabeth when I was married to Renee--I suppose some people are wondering about that,” Henry said.

He credits their chance meeting to “an angel sitting on my shoulder.”

“From the very first night that I met Elizabeth, I thought: ‘I’m not going to let her get away,’ ” he said. “She is beautiful and brilliant.”

She was also smitten. “I was taken by Henry’s spirit; he is a man who loves to have fun but who also cares about others, a giver. He’s also a real protector and a man of impeccable manners--so elegant.”

Elizabeth, who speaks four languages--Polish, Russian, French and English--was born in Poland, where she earned a doctorate in psychology. Her father, Henry Swiecicki, was a journalist who edited a leading Polish newspaper.

She moved to the United States about 15 years ago, making her home in New York and taking additional course work at New York University. She maintains a private practice in Manhattan.

In 1991, she cowrote a self-help book with Susan Israelson, a former client. The book, “Lovesick: The Marilyn Syndrome,” theorizes that childhood emotional deprivation handicaps women in their romantic relationships. The life of Marilyn Monroe is used as a case study.

Elizabeth Macavoy had been single for about a decade when she met Henry Segerstrom.

“I had decided I didn’t need a man,” she said. “I had dated, had a few relationships, but no man touched my heart.”

Now, she says, “I am madly in love.”

Henry Segerstrom has deep ties to Orange County. He was founding chairman of the Performing Arts Center and his family has supported it with donations of land they once farmed and millions of dollars. The nearby South Coast Plaza--considered one of the nation’s most successful shopping venues--emerged from Henry’s vision.

The couple plan to honeymoon in Eastern Europe. Upon their return, they will set up residences in New York and Orange County.

“I want to continue my practice,” Elizabeth said. “And I know how much it means to Henry to have a presence in Orange County.”

“Whatever we do, we’ll be together,” Henry said. “That is our plan.”