This pretty much captures Allison and Dan
I just got back from a lovely wedding in Maine. The Poteet's welcome dinner the night before the wedding was nicer than many weddings I've been to, with a beautiful view of the water in Bar Harbor, local beer and good wine, delicious appetizers, surf and turf for dinner, and two desserts, including some of the best brownies I have ever had.
Wendy, Clark, Dan, Allison, Jason, Chrissy, me, and Kevin at the Welcome Party
Welcome Party dinner
The ceremony location was beautiful, with perfect blue water and mountains in the background. They wrote their own vows, which I usually love because it gives you a rare chance to peek into the hearts of the bride and groom in a way that the standard religious vows do not. Allison expressed her love in a particularly eloquent and touching way. Dan's vows were not only lovely but he also responded (impromptu!) to her vows to wonderful comic effect.
Allison's mother and brother
Allison and her dad- someone looks happy!
More vows-related hilarity!
I love that she's looking at us to enjoy the moment with her.
Allison and Dan exchanging rings
Big kiss!
Mr. and Mrs.!
I can hardly pick one photo from the cocktail hour because it was similarly beautiful and fun on a dock outside. And they served a blueberry mojito that was even more delicious than I imagined it would be. I might have to learn to make it myself because now that I've had one, I can't face a future without any more. Seriously.
The dock is awesome, right?
Me, experiencing blueberry mojito joy
Walking on the dock with our friends
The reception was inside a tent with trees near the support beams and herb garden center pieces, which were lovely and brought the outside location of the wedding inside the tent. In my opinion, good dancing music is one of the most important parts of a reception because, at least for me, it divides the weddings I really have fun at, from those I enjoy more passively. These days, with little baby James to keep me busy, weddings are my super fun night outs, so it was great to have such a good DJ. Also, my friends at the wedding were really fun to party with all night.
First dance near the inside trees
Cutting the very pretty cake
There was something else about this wedding. It felt like fate. To explain, I have to go back to the beginning. Allison and I went to high school together in New Jersey but she was in the grade above me and I knew her through friends that were in band with her: Chrissy, Cate, and Wednesday. I only really started spending more time with her when she would come home from college and then later when I would come home from college. In 1999, her junior year of college and my sophomore year, she studied in DC for a semester, and that's when we became close. She's a great listener, she leans in when you speak, laughs big wonderful laughs when you're only a little funny, and touches your arm to stress a point. She has a political wikipedia tucked in her brain, and her idealism is surpassed by very few people. She is easy to love.
Here's where it gets a bit odd. In 2001, before we knew either of them, my now-husband Kevin, and Allison's now-husband Dan, left the east coast and went across the country to go to school at the University of Iowa. Kevin was at the Iowa Writer's Workshop, and Dan was in law school, but somehow they ended up playing basketball together regularly.
In 2005, shortly after she met Dan, Allison told me she had met a great guy on Friendster. She told me about their first date in Boston and how she was excited for his next email. Later that day, I took a picture in Miami in front of a palm tree, which later I put on my Friendster. When I moved to Charlottesville for law school, Kevin saw the picture of me in front of a palm tree and thought I was cute. The first time Kevin and I went to visit Allison and Dan in Boston together, Kevin realized that he knew Dan from Iowa.
Did you follow all that? Ramsey, New Jersey; Iowa City; Boston; Miami; and Charlottesville. And then there we all were. I had known the bride for 15 years, Kevin had known the groom for 10 years. If it's one of those it's-a-small-world coincidences, it's a good one for sure. Or maybe it's meant to be.
