Kori emailed me a few weeks ago saying that she and her fiance Matt were coming to Burlington to get married, and…

Well, actually, I’ll have Kori say it in her own words:

My name is Kori and my fiance Matt and I are planning to elope in the Burlington, VT area the first week in October. We’re hoping to do a very low key morning ceremony, around 10ish, on Thursday, October 4th. We have searched high and low for someone special to perform our ceremony and we’ve got our hearts and minds set on you.

That made my heart blush.

We met up this morning at Oakledge – totally deserted of a misty October morn – and went down to the beach, where we held the ceremony under a gnarly maple tree, and next to a handmade sand sculpture which looked suspiciously like a seriously pornographic pair of Double-Ds.

Fortunately, Kori and Matt were totally undaunted by the giant sandy knockers.  Otherwise we would have had to dismantle them in the name of holy matrimony, and that just seems wrong on so many levels.

They’re a relaxed, easy-going couple who’d elected to use my standard, pre-written ceremony.  Which was fine, except for the fact that in Kori’s email, she’d described herself and Matt in such charming detail that it would have been some serious fun to write them a custom ceremony.  Fortunately, this is a great place to share with the world some of what she said:

• We met while working at a retail tea shop called Teavana.
• Early on in our friendship, Matt loaned me a well-loved copy of Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, ‘True Love’. I fell in love with him as I read his scribblings and reflections in the margins. The rest, as they say, is history.
• Matt works in the university library system at Binghamton University, coordinating a team of student staff and maintaining the stacks. He’s pursuing an MLS degree at present, but his passion is writing. It’s not uncommon for him to spring out of bed in the morning to grab a pen a write down an idea for a story, a line of poetry, or a song lyric. He also plays the guitar, sings, paints, and has mastered the art of scrambled eggs.
• I also work at BU as an Academic Advisor for Harpur College of Arts and Sciences. I love my work because I get to listen and problem solve with my students all day, everyday, and it’s always new and different. My creative outlet is cooking. My passion is sharing it with others.
• Our biggest struggle has been communication, but we work on this component of our relationship like it is our child.
• We have a cat named Beatrix; she’s awesome. [NOTE: Kori wore a cat pin on her sweater in honor of Beatrix.  She must be one hell of a cat!]
• Matt proposed to me at a rest stop in Vermont while we were on a road trip to see my dad in northern NH. He just chose his moment and went for it. It was perfect and totally awkward, just like us.
• If I were an item of clothing, I’d be a cardigan, because I love to be cozy
• We both love to dance and never realized this fact about one another until his cousin’s wedding last winter in Maine. I’m not one to boast, but we pretty much made their reception with our moves.

While I don’t often try to predict whether or not couples are going to make it because A) life is strange and B) what the heck do I know, these two strike me as a shoe-in for lifelong love and devotion.

Our mutual goal is to live an authentic life and accept ourselves and others as they are.