Cris and Anna You Make Me Smile

Stratton, VERMONT
6-8 August 2010

We celebrated with Cris and Anna just outside Stratton, Vermont at the beautiful residence of a family friend.

I use the pronoun “we” not to include Harry (who actually was at another wedding in Chestertown, Maryland), but instead to describe a group of friends bonded loosely by the fact that we went to Princeton together (+ Stephen, Patty and Mike), but more importantly we are tied together by those epic post college NYC memories. (Sometimes involving beer.)

Since that time members of this group have moved to Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Michigan and a small few have stayed in New York . As I am sure Cris and Anna realized, their wedding was a kind of coming home for all of us. There was quite a bit of pure happiness and laughter.

As we scurried off the of the bus onto a stone path we found Cris, barefoot, greeting guests. The sunny, fresh air was filled with bliss, delight and a touch of nervous anticipation.

The ceremony was held down a grassy path away from the house and barn in front of a small pond. Cris walked down the path with his brother and as he approached the crowd smiled his infectious smile, waved his arms and greeted everyone with a hearty hello. Friends Gordo and Mike carried/walked daughter Eliza (she was the cutest!). And finally Anna appeared (gorgeous!) with her mother and father. She too approached us with a smile and spoke a sunny hello. I loved that both of them are too friendly and informal to pass by without a greeting. Most memorable during the ceremony was the passing of their rings among the bridal party and the sweet and truthful vows that Cris and Anna wrote and exchanged.

Shortly after dinner (burgers, corn on the cob and mac & cheese!) was served, the band started jamming and we (Table 6) bounced onto the dance floor. As the Vermont sun set the temperature dropped below 50 degrees, but we didn’t even notice until the end of the night, the non stop dancing kept us warm.

The car ride home with Lilly driving, Mr. Paige as co-pilot and Patty, Stephen and me in the back, was not quite as rambunctious as the traffic filled ride North, but we did stop at a roadside burger stand and enjoy the sunny afternoon eating french fries, drinking milkshakes and talking about the events (and scandals) of the night.

Special thanks to Drew for not 1) being angry that I woke him up (kind of early) on Saturday morning so I could borrow his computer to do school work 2) not being angry that I downloaded XL Stat on his computer so I could do my school work. As everyone knows…you can always count on Drew. Thanks friend.