Michael Cole & Laurel Dailey are gettin’ hitched, one way or another. As we look to our November 7th wedding, there’s no sense of what to expect. As with you, all of our best laid plans have been upended this year. Each detail is marked by uncertainty, every plan tentative. Amidst that landscape, we’ve negotiated with our own expectations and limitations. Even still, with fragile hope and resilient joy, we’d like to invite you to join us over the weekend of November 6-8 to bear witness to our wedding ceremony. We’ve secured a location that’s meant a great deal to us in our relationship, a special little spot way out in the Eastern Sierra. Our desire is that the weekend is a relaxing retreat for everyone who attends—soaking in a natural hot spring under the light of the Milky Way certainly hits the mark for us. That said, the shape of this wedding is ever-shifting. It might not be like any wedding you've ever attended, but we're working hard to create safe, joyful spaces in which to celebrate our union with our friends and family. Safety is at the top of our list, and every plan we're forming is influenced by this priority. We ask for your flexibility and communication—let us know if you have questions or concerns. While it won't be the wedding we THOUGHT we'd be having, we're doing our best to make the weekend a meaningful celebration for all who are able to be there.

It all began with exercise. For Laurel, it started after years of half-hearted participation in pilates DVDs, when she and her sister Jody decided to commit to a workout routine at an actual gym. They began powerlifting at Metroflex—a gym suggested by Jody’s husband Dave. It was a thousand miles from their old dance aerobic DVDs, but they liked the challenge and the people* they met along the way. *This is foreshadowing, of course. Meanwhile, Mikey found himself pitted against the staff at his local Gold’s Gym. There was too much grunting, they said, you’ll have to fling weights around somewhere else. Mikey grunted, “YOUR LOSS,” and defected to Metroflex, where he began assisting the very same coach who trained Laurel and Jody. Unbeknownst to the girls, their longtime coach Liz had arranged for a new trainer to take over her Saturday session. One morning while Laurel and Jody were warming up, in walked the newly-minted coach Michael Cole who, without any introduction, began barking orders. The ensuing months were tough; Laurel, not accustomed to taking commands from anyone, was rightly miffed by the whole arrangement. Mikey was baffled by this new client who outright refused to follow his lead. But time eased the transition as Laurel began to appreciate Mikey's skill as a coach, and Mikey discovered new depths of patience he never knew he had. Months later, after plotting an adventure for the gym crew to take a snow day on Mt. Baldy, Mikey and Laurel found themselves nervously texting one another: "Everyone dropped out—do you still want to go?" He asked. "Yes," she texted back. This is how they found themselves side by side on a rickety chairlift at 7,000 feet, making stilted conversation while gripping the center pole with white knuckles. At the end of it all, both had a pretty good time. Two months after that, Mikey asked Laurel on a date. Three years later, they’re still going on dates and Mikey is still her lifting coach.

Three years after their initial snow day at Mt. Baldy, Mikey once again asked Laurel if she'd like to spend the day on the mountain. This time, a few more friends were invited, and they all rode up that same rickety ski lift, for what appeared to be the same end result: a pretty good time. However, at the top of the lift, Mikey took Laurel's elbow and asked her, "Do you trust me?"* *This is, of course, a classic Cole power move, and he'd tried it on a recent camping trip in Death Valley when Laurel had come to a vertiginous ledge on a hiking trail. Extending a hand, he asked, "Do you trust me?" And Laurel hemmed and hawed and finally said that yes, she did, but she was still going to scoot down the steep slope on her own.** **Typical. Back on Mt. Baldy, Mikey asked Laurel, "Do you trust me?" She answered more confidently this time: "Yes." "I'm going to ask you a couple of questions," Mikey stated, then asked, "May I propose to you now?" Oh, friends: there were tears. So many tears. There was a ring, engraved with lyrics from a favorite John Prine song). And there in the distance was the ski lift operator, who saw Mikey on one knee and exclaimed, "Oh, it's goin' DOWN!" Indeed, it's goin' DOWN on November 7, 2020.