We met about 9yrs ago and have been together as a couple for 8. We didnt realize our relationship would of expanded into what it is now. We have really grown together spiritually so much since we first met, and even more so since the birth of our daughter, Ellie. Absolutely the light of our life, but not the light of our love. When we found out we were pregnant, we decided not to get married, as we wanted to get married for us, not because of what people expected of us. We love our daughter with all our hearts, but our love for each other is special and based on us, not her. We now live in Easton, PA, have a wonderful home and the beginnings of a loving family.

We got enagaged on the boardwalk in Wildwood, NJ during Fathers day weekend of 2007. Courtney was eyeing up the fake jewlery in one of those crane games. I pulled out the ring and showed it to her asking if she wanted this one instead. She couldnt believe it at first, but it was for real. Yes a long time coming, but the moment was finally here, and she said yes! She was the happiest girl in the entire world and I was the luckiest man in the entire world.

We thought about all the places to get married and only a few really had special meaning for us. One of which was Killington peak in Vermont. We originially thought about a winter wedding, but quickly nixed that idea as trying to get all our friends and family up on the rock in 20degrees and snow wasnt really feasable. One possiblilty was a fall wedding, but we were unsure of the peak without snow. We scoped it out this summer and fell in love with the beauty of the peak in the summertime. While not having first hand sights of the actual peak in the fall, we both have been snowboarding in the fall during prime leaf peeper season and just knew that is the place and time to say our vows. We started to plan the perfect wedding for the fall of 2008 with the Killington wedding planners. however we soon realized while we could plan the perfect wedding, we couldnt paln for the perfect weather. Killington peak can be harsh to say the least in less than favorable weather conditions. The wedding planners assured us we would have a nice alternate location in case of inclement weather. To give them credit, the alternate locations were nice, but not what we envisioned for our sacred ceremony. We were left with a really difficult decision. We decided to continue on with our original ideals of marriage and do this for ourselves. We decided to elope, without our daugher, and with the date dependent on the weather of the weekend. It would also be this fall. This also gave us a clean slate to do whatever it is we wanted. Since there wouldnbt be enough snow to snowboard down, we decided to mt bike down the mountain! We both love to mt bike and thought it would be an awesome way to end the ceremony. It was!

We secured the marriage license and found Jennifer Donaldson, an awesome interfaith minister, to perform the ceremony. It took a bit of jumping through hoops for her to get a permit without a date, but she pulled through. After seeing a good break in the weather for Sept 30th, we made the last steps securing the room, gondola tickets, cake, babysitter, etc. It was tough to leave our daughter for the weekend, but we found someone we trusted with her, as well as with our plans to elope, and all on 3 days notice! We are very grateful for Andrea and Briana. Ellie had a wonderful time with them. So while she was riding quads and having fun, we were exchanging vows at 4,241ft on the rock at Killington peak!

On the way up to Vermont the Saturday evening before the wedding, we made a some calls to family and a few friends. Mostly to clear our conscience of not inviting them to the wedding. Of all the people we called, we didnt expect anyone to be able to come up on such short notice. Well, we should of realized we have some very compulsive friends. Dave actually made the drive up the next morning, leaving about 3am! This was so awesome for not only is he such a good friend to us that we were honored to have him at our wedding, but he was actually able to video record it for us! We were going to rely on a few leaf peepers to take a couple of shots, so having a video of the ceremony is just simply incredible.

There were lots of leaf peepers on the peak as witnesses to the exchanging of our vows and everybody was taking pictures of us, including an Appalachian trail magazine photographer (it cuts thru Killington Peak - if anyone knows what mag this was or find our pic in it, please let us know!). The weather was absolutely perfect. It was such an awesome ceremony. Jennifer really did a nice job. Everything was so incredibly meaningful for us. Above all, we did what we really wanted, without limitations. We couldnt have asked for a more perfect wedding.

After the ceremony we hopped on our bikes and Dave took a few more pictures. So did a Killington Ambassador and he actually posted our picture on the Killington website!(scroll thru to see Oct 1 photo's or just click here) We descended down the mountain on some fun fireroads and sweet singletrack. We ate lunch at Charitys, a favorite restuarant of ours, and finished off the day with an awesome ice cream wedding cake from Ben and Jerrys! Once again, we couldn't have asked for a more perfect wedding.

Click to open the Ceremony program with our vows

Below are some pictures from before, during and after the wedding (Sorry pics are not in order yet)

Gift registery at Home Depot

Continuing with the Mt Bike theme, we are going to go to Moab, Ut for our honeymoon. Target date is May 2008. We want to do the White Rim tour with Western Spirit and afterwards two days at Splitrock. If you would like to donate towards our honeymoon fund, click here.

babies babies babies!