The Perfect Wedding

We had the perfect wedding. That's not to say that our's was better than any one else's, but that even if we could manipulate the universe, we would not have done anything different.

Why was it so perfect? Certainly the planets had aligned for us: it was equinox, there was not a cloud in the sky most of the weekend, the tallest mountain in North America towered brilliantly over the proceedings, the temperature was perfect throughout the day and evening, the leaves were at their peak fall colors, and the full moon and aurora added icing to the cake. But these factors were really window dressing to an underlying perfection, relayed to us by many of our guests.

First, the entire wedding event, spanning several days, was a reflection of our own personalities. From the impromptu bachelor/bachelorette parties, to the slide shows presenting ourselves to our families, to the wedding vows, we made up our own rules. By the end, no one was expecting us to live up to any expectations of what our wedding should be, other than it should continue to teach them something new about who we are. Such a system makes blunders and misfortunes a natural part of the process rather than something worthy of demerits.

Second, the entire wedding event was a reflection of the personalities of our family and friends. We wanted our wedding to not just be a celebration of our commitment to each other, but a celebration of our commitment to our families as well. We made ample opportunities for our guests to get to know each other, including group activities like flightseeing and boating, casual cocktail parties, and chances to speak to the whole group to share stories the night before, share sentiments during the ceremony, and offer toasts during the reception. By the morning following the reception, a newcomer would find it difficult to distinguish friends of the bride from friends of the groom because that barrier had largely been destroyed.

The combination of both of these factors led to a precious result -- an intimate experience that bonded a group of people together in such a way that everytime they meet or talk about it in the future, it will likely bring a smile to their faces.

These pages describe the story of Kristin and Matt, from first meeting to shortly after their wedding, largely as a scrapbook for us, but posted so that family and friends could learn more of the details, relive our wedding in relative sobriety, and share pictures.

We also hope that any visiting strangers may also learn something useful from these pages when planning their weddings. We found that the wedding industry has not embraced the do-it-yourself crowd and is still trying force pre-computer age traditions down the throats of would-be newlyweds. Thus, despite the capabilities that computers have empowered us with for the past 10 years, we found little guidance on how to take advantage of them for our wedding, except perhaps from the internet. For example, open a catalog of wedding invitations and 90% of them will look nearly identical -- imitation calligraphy that is barely legible. With a home computer and a cheap printer, you can make a very personal and legible invitation using only basic word processing skills. As another example, rather than a scrapbook that sits on your shelf and potentially molds from disuse, simple web pages like this one can help all of us remember the experience wherever we are, serve as a centralized repository for wedding photos, and allow those who could not attend to get a sense of what we experienced. So feel free to raid any ideas you find here and modify them to suit your wedding -- and we'd love to hear about it if we've helped in some way!