I can't wholly say that fate brought us together. So many people played a role (a very conscious one) in our union. It just goes to show that we are surrounded by so many great people and so much love! The story is a long one, and we love to tell it so please ask :) but I’ll give the abbreviated version here. My older brother, Coursen, introduced us. We met on match day. Colin told an insanely funny story from his pre-med days and I was instantly struck by his sense of humor. We caught up at his med school graduation a few weeks later. I think it was around this time several people went up to him and told him I was smitten (family members, med school peers, total strangers, etc…). I saw him again over Memorial Day Weekend at my brother’s wedding in Chittenden, Vermont. The beauty and magic of that weekend, celebrating the love between my older brother and his new wife, helped ignite a spark in us. It was Sunday evening, the last night of our weekend away at the beautiful Mountaintop Inn and Resort. We were walking back from dinner together under an incredible blanket of stars, surrounded only by the sounds of Vermont’s nature, when a car came barreling towards us up a dirt path. I am not kidding when I say that car was pushing 75 mph before it came to a screeching halt. The hatch door flies open to reveal all of my siblings crammed into the trunk (not uncommon, #trunkpeople). Coursen pops his head out, screams “kiss her you *expletive*”, giggles like the school girl that he is and slams the door shut as the car speeds off spitting dust and gravel in its wake. Colin and I are left laughing, stunned. We kiss, and the rest is history…

Time is Too slow for those who wait Too swift for those who fear Too long for those who grieve Too short for those who rejoice But for those who love, Time is not Henry van Dyke Jr. (1904) We spent the morning of the proposal at the Hershey Gardens, exploring the butterfly atrium and the Christmas tree exhibit, before wandering to the Japanese Garden. Sitting under a 100 year old tree, a tree that has outlived our grandparents and will likely outlive us, Colin read me a beautiful letter, and asked me to be his wife. After, he took me to brunch at the Hershey Hotel where he surprised me with both of our families waiting to celebrate together- it was truly the perfect day!