Date: Monday, September 23, 2002
Location: von Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe, Vermont
Ceremony Time: 3:30 PM
Reception Time: Immediately following the ceremony

Both the wedding and the reception were held at the von Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont. (Yes, the "Sound of Music" people run a ski lodge now!) The Trapp Lodge is a romantic Austrian style resort with 2,700 mountainside acres and amazing panoramic views of the Green Mountains and the quaint 200-year-old village of Stowe.

The nature gods smiled upon us, allowing us to be married in a small grassy meadow adjacent to a birch grove located on the Trapp Lodge property. Thirty of our very closest friends and family joined us for our wedding celebration; a horse-drawn wagon transported everyone back and forth from the main lodge to the grove.

Yes, it was really on a Monday! (What would you expect from a couple who got engaged on a palindromic day?!)

September 23, 2002 was the Autumnal Equinox, when the noon sun is overhead at the equator and night and day are equal length in all parts of the Earth. This astronomical event has marked holy days in many different religions for thousands of years. It is traditionally a time of family reunion, feasting and ritual to celebrate the harvest, and thanksgiving and rejoicing for all good things that have come throughout the year; it is a time of letting go of the past and turning to face the future. We decided it was the perfect day to celebrate the union of two equals in our marriage, and to recognize the continuity of humanity over thousands of years.

We had an intimate, untraditional ceremony that incorporated our personal beliefs and values. Our celebrant opened the nondenominational ceremony using a Tibetan Bowl of Mindfulness, used in Buddhism and Hinduism as a meditation aid to help one center and be fully present in the joy of the moment.

Our parents each did a reading. Stefanie's mother opened the readings with i carry your heart with me, by e.e. cummings. Her father read Marriage is a long conversation..., by Robert Louis Stevenson, and Todd's parents wrapped up the readings by sharing the Apache Wedding Blessing. A short musical interlude on guitar followed, and then it was on to the vows and ring exchange. See the full text of our readings here (includes the Pasternak poem printed on our programs).

The ceremony concluded with a dove release. Doves mate for life and symbolize love, peace, fidelity, prosperity, and good luck. Legend holds that seeing doves on your wedding day assures a happy home. The birds we released have a strong homing instinct and had been trained to fly on home to dinner and bed as soon as they did their duty to assure our happy home. (In fact, our "bird wrangler" said that when they work weddings in the Stowe area, the doves typically arrive home before he does!) We each held a bird (Ralph and Alice, hee!) for a moment and then sent them upwards where they circled a time or two in the clear blue sky, and then disappeared as they flew home. It was a beautiful sight, and both a moving and a memorable experience.

Todd and Stefanie each chose one important person to stand up with them on this day.

Maid-and-Sister-of-Honor, Kristina Otterson
Kristina is the bride's younger sister, and has seen her through bad haircuts, bad moods, and bad boyfriends, as well as more good things than Stefanie can count! She was Stefanie's best friend when they were very young; after a turbulent decade or so while we took turns being teenagers, we're once again very close, despite the geographic distance now separating us. Kristina still qualifies to be "maid" instead of "matron" of honor, but has been in a committed relationship for some time now and everyone expects her to be next! (No pressure, Jake...) Kristina's one of Stefanie's favorite people and closest confidantes, and the bride and groom are both happy she'll be standing with us on our wedding day.

Best Man, Evan Metcalf
Evan has been a very important part of Todd's life for 15 years, and is probably the closest thing to a brother the groom has had. They met at the very beginning of their freshman year at Colby (Todd vividly recalls their kicking a golf ball around campus for some reason) and got to know each other during the next four years, eventually ending up as two of four roomies senior year (we had quite the laundry pile in our closet-sized room in the quad). Some highlights: when Todd was the opinion editor of the college newspaper, he relied on Evan to create editorial and other drawings; Todd did his best to keep the comics and Batman cereal supplies flowing when Ev was studying in Italy; Todd and Evan worked together as tech support in the college's computer facilities; it was through Evan that Todd met many of the folks who formed the foundation of his college (and post-college) life, some of whom you might meet at the wedding. Ev has also expanded the groom's world when it comes to art, music, and movies. And most significantly, over the years Evan has been the person Todd could count on most to be there in good times and bad—despite the geographic distance between us since graduating, a phone call to or from Evan has made all the difference on many an occasion.

Honestly, we're just happy everyone is coming all the way to Stowe to see us marry! We don't require or expect a gift from anyone, but to simplify matters for those of you who have already been asking, yes, we've registered at a couple of places...mostly for kitchen stuff, as between us we have a LOT of 25-year-old hand-me-downs in this room!

Williams-Sonoma has our pots, pans, and most of the other kitchen-y things. The registry is accessible through any of the stores, or on the web: www.williams-sonoma.com.

Leave it to us to fall for a very obscure flatware designer, and only slightly less hard-to-find dishes! We've opened a registry for these things with Rudi's Pottery—they're one of the few places that actually has both (plus they're a discounter to boot). This registry is only accessible via the web, but they do support telephone orders in addition to Internet orders: www.rudispottery.com.

Todd found stemware he likes at Crate and Barrel. There's not a whole lot else on this registry, but it is accessible through any of the stores or on the web: www.crateandbarrel.com.