We spent last weekend in beautiful western North Carolina attending my sister-in-law’s wedding.  In October we were in west Tennessee for Maggie’s younger sister’s wedding (cue sympathy for Maggie’s parents).  Last weekend’s wedding took place in the same neck of the woods where Maggie and I met 11 years ago.  The only disappointing part of the trip was how quick it was; not even time to exit I-40 at Montreat for a quick stroll around Lake Susan.  To our Montreat and Black Mountain friends: we’ll catch you next time!

Mary, the bride, is something of an outdoor lover as you can tell from the boots she and the bridesmaids wore for the wedding.  The wedding took place at Leatherwood Mountains Resort which ended up being a very beautiful spot tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Maggie and I stayed in a beautiful cabin with the rest of the immediate family.  Other family members and friends stayed in nearby cabins.  This set-up allowed all of us to chip in with the inevitable last-minute wedding details.  For the record, I’m a big fan of friends and family helping with weddings.  Not only does it keep things a bit less expensive (as it did our wedding 10 years ago), it’s a great excuse for extended family and friends to hang out together.  Maggie and I have helped out with 4 different family weddings and it’s always been a good time… not without moments of nuptial drama, but always good.

Back in the summer of 2006 Maggie and I spent a month traveling in Europe.  Mary, on her way home from Sudan after a stint with Samaritan’s Purse,  joined us for a week of our trip.  Traveling together allows you to get to know someone quite well and I can say confidently that Mary’s new husband married a very quality woman.  We wish the new couple all the best in their new life together.

(A strange post script to the weekend: the bus driver on the last leg of our return trip asked where we were coming from.  Learning we’d been at a wedding and of our own almost-10 years of marriage he sneered, “Working on 10 years of a life sentence, huh?”  An understandable reaction perhaps, but sad nonetheless.)