We're getting married!

Hello Everyone! With our wedding just 3 months from today, we felt it would be a good time for an update. At this point in time we are really hoping that 8/10/20 is just far enough away that we can proceed with our wedding as planned. Luckily for us, although our wedding is out of state, our guest list is considered small, being just under invited 40 guests. As many of you know, ANP is temporarily closed, this is where we've arranged to have our ceremony and are still very hopeful we will be allowed to do so and the park will reopen in time. If we find out otherwise, we will surely let you all know and hopefully come up with a backup ceremony location! In terms of our reception at the Saltbox in Winter Harbor, we are also still hopeful as a small private party and the restaurant to ourselves, we will be able to go forward with those plans. They are planning to open up June 1st for the season per their most recent announcement. Shortly after that time we will hopefully be able to officially pick the menu selections for our wedding day. We will send you all an email to verify your attendance and give you food options by hopefully mid-June. Matt and I know we are all fighting the same storm, but we are also all in different boats. The last thing we want is for guests to feel they have to come, if they are not comfortable, or financially unable, or cannot travel. All that we ask is, if you are unable to attend, to please notify us as soon as possible. As mentioned before, our guest list is very short, so if some are unable to attend, we would like to extend the invites to some that may be in a position to join! Overall, we are doing our best to stay safe and sane during this unknown and really hoping you all are doing the same! Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions! Sending Much Love, Emily, Matt & Daisy

Thinking back to 2011, makes me giggle. Such an innocent time in our lives. I had just switched into the Environmental Science & Policy major, going into my first full semester of coursework. I was excited but also a little intimidated due to not knowing a whole lot about what I was getting myself into. One of my first courses, which was likely one of the toughest I took, was also one most rewarding. Freshwater Ecology. Okay, *thinks to self, what even is that!?!* Google's it... ohhhh, okay....hmmm. Gets to class, still no idea. Prays teacher doesn't call on me. Act like you're paying attention, take notes, act normal. A week or so into classes we did a 'transect study' of a local tributary near Plymouth. I truthfully didn't even know what that was, but regardless showed up to class ready, yet completely unprepared. Classmates came equipped with rubber boots, nets, notepads, you name it. I was in blue Nike shorts and some flip flops. Time to partner up and no one was really approaching me (probably due to my lack of preparedness).... Luckily, another classmate, with blonde curly hair, also appearing illprepared, in his skate shoes and gym shorts, appears to also be partner-less. We both enter the stream barefooted and try and make the best out of not being stuck in a classroom for a change. We make small talk and plan a meet up time to start our lab required for this class. Our first meet up turned more into a hang out session. We eventually got the lab done, and decided to do our semester long lab article critique together, as we got such a good grade working together the first time. As you can imagine with our college lifestyles it didn't take too long before we'd both free'd up as much time as possible to hang out with each other. We had a lot of similarities, but yet Matt seemed so much different than all the other Plymouth guys I'd met. He seemed genuine and kind. I even went and hung out at Matt's frat house, which prior to meeting someone like Matt, wouldn't have happened. Long story short, we found love in Freshwater Ecology. Matt's knowledge for aquatic creatures and my extreme organizational skills and determination to succeed no matter how little I knew, made for a great team, and I still think this holds true to this day. 🐟🤍

Matt wakes me up one bitterly cold but vibrantly sunny day and tells me he 'wants to hike up to Lonesome Lake & snowboard down' ...today... I reply. 'today'. High of 3° for the day. But oh, was it sunny. Somehow I catch a vibe that maybe I better just go along with his crazy idea, because he's really trying to convince me. I pack my bag and get everything ready and we set on our way. Our hike up to the top included many strangers asking us *what our plan was for the day*, due to the snowboards on our backs. Matt's typical 'oh you know, just gonna ride down response' starts to wear thin and I ask, *yah, Matt, what's the plan?!* We get up to the lake, thankfully, and Matt's beer exploded in his backpack, since it was so cold, so he was forced to chug it, which I feel he needed at that point. We cross over towards the hut and take some pictures for others and I notice Matt is acting a little funny. He waits till everyone passes and tells me to go out to the center for a picture. He insisted. He starts fumbling around with his phone and a plastic bag and sets it somehow in the snowbank to take a video *photo* which we used to do a lot hiking the NH48 when no one was at the summit for our picture so it didn't seem that out of the norm. Sure enough we pose for the picture and then Matt reaches in his pocket and gets down on one knee. My hands were so cold but it was an amazing feeling to have the sun shining down on us and our final NH48 peak in the background! We had the whole lake to ourselves. We snowboarded down the very narrow lonesome lake trail, luckily we made it out in one piece. Although, I'm not so sure he'll ever be able to convince me to do that again! I suppose it's a once in a lifetime experience for a reason! 🤍