We're incredibly grateful that we are getting to share this moment with you and with each other. We'll be joining together in Hot Springs, NC at Paint Rock Farm starting on Friday afternoon April 25, 2024. Our ceremony and reception will be on Saturday, April 26. Our ceremony starts at 4PM. Please plan to arrive a few minutes early so we can get things started right around 4. Saturday daytime we'll have some fun activities planned, see the "Fun @ the Farm" schedule page event for more details. Feel free to arrive at any point on Saturday before the ceremony if you want to hang out longer and join in on the fun! For directions to the farm, check out the Travel page of our website here or search for Paint Rock Farm Hot Springs, NC in Google Maps. Check out the Travel page for local accommodations if you're not staying on the farm with us. Last thing, as many of you we're both proudly sober so we won't be serving alcohol at our wedding. No judgement if you do drink, we just respectfully ask that you also stay sober through this celebration with us and that you don't bring drugs or alcohol to the farm or show up intoxicated. We'll have plenty of delicious non-alcoholic options including kombucha, mocktails, craft sodas, and more. This will be a pretty casual and outdoorsy affair with about 50 guests. We're pretty low key and we just want to have a fun time and share this special moment with our friends and family.

We're 20 days away from our wedding day! We had an awesome day of walk through with our day of wedding coordinator at the venue today. We spent the weekend in Hot Springs supporting the businesses that are open and one night of backpacking on the AT with our backpacking meetup group. Hot Springs has a long way to go in terms of being back to "normal" after Hurricane Helene. It was one of the really hard hit towns with flooding from Spring Creek reaching nearly the 2nd story of most businesses right along Bridge St, the main strip of tiny Hot Springs. But they are recovering! Big Pillow Brewery is open again (and looks brand new) and the Grey Eagle Taqueria is running a small operation out of their tiny food truck. Their full kitchen and menu will be rolling along again soon, but no ETA just yet. Other than Smoky Mountain Diner and a new Hunt & Gather Food truck, all of the other restaurants are still closed. Artisun, an eclectic art, gift, and coffee/ice cream shop re-opened up the hill. The coffee is as good as ever, but they're operating in a smaller gallery space for now so not as many neat gifts as their old spot next to Iron Horse. There are plenty of homes and businesses that weren't too hard hit, but you'll see the areas that were and they're still cleaning up. If you're not staying on site and haven't reserved a place in Hot Springs yet, we recommend checking out Airbnb for many great options.

The day after Thanksgiving in 2020 we had both signed up to go for a hike organized by the Backpacking Western NC meetup group. The hike started at Black Balsam parking area (mile post 420 on the Blue Ridge Parkway) where we first introduced ourselves and immediately started cracking jokes. The hike took us up to the Black Balsam Summit, over Tenant Mountain, and we did a section of the Mountains to Sea trail for probably a 10ish mile hiking day. We immediately clicked. We talked and hiked together the whole day sharing about our lives, adventures, and recovery. The hike leader encouraged us to exchange numbers and carpool to the next backpacking trip. The rest is history.

I knew Tyler had a ring when he went to Atlanta near the end of Jan 2024 for a "hair cut," but I had no idea when he was planning to ask the big question. Our 3 years of dating anniversary hiking weekend in Feb 2024 started off snowy at the Beacon Heights parking area on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Our goal was to hike 40 miles and get to the Hwy 421 bridge on the MST (Deep Gap) by Monday, President's Day. The first day was frigid and windy. Rough Ridge, normally an awesome view, had gusting winds at probably 40-50mph. Another day passes and the weather is slightly better but there aren't any views or spots Tyler felt inspired about popping the question. The last day rolls around and we're hanging out at our lunch spot for the day, the Grandview Overlook, with probably 5 more miles to go. It's sunny, slightly warmer, and there's a clear and beautiful view. Truly grand. After all the cars leave we both sit contently enjoying the view and the sunshine. Then Tyler says "I'm just going to do this here" and gets down on one knee in front of me. He opens a small wooden box to reveal a dazzling diamond ring. "Will you marry me...Hobbit?" he says sweetly and intently. I am completely surprised and overwhelmed with joy and excitement. "AH! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! YES! YES!" I exclaim and kiss him.

Hobbit & Bluedeer are our trail names! It's what we go by on trail and how many of our backpacking friends know us. Usually these names come with funny stories. Ask us at the wedding how we got our names!