Living in the OBX during the winter can be a lonely place. We both decided to make an online dating profile on 'Plenty of Fish' where we exchanged some messages. Ironically enough we ended up at the same bar the same night - Big Something was playing and we danced and exchanged numbers. We ended up living three houses down the street from one another. The next day Lydia went on a horrible blind date with a not so manly-man... on her way home she saw Mark splitting firewood in the front yard with an axe... the rest was history.

Mark planned a trip to Charlotte to stay with our friends Sarah and Casey and go zip lining at the US Olympic White Water Rafting Center. It was 90*+, so sweaty and after a dozen or so zips, multiple obstacle courses and not enough water - Mark was waiting for Lydia on one knee for the last zipline. We ultimately got engaged in a giant American Beech tree in the middle of the woods. It was perfect.

We're getting married at Lake Eden Events in Black Mountain, NC - just twenty minutes east of Asheville. Lake Eden was home to the historic Black Mountain College, which was the first integrated college in the south. The ceremony will take place overlooking the lake with goregous mountain views with the reception to follow onsite in an old New England style barn... dont worry, no hay.