P h o t o s b y B i r k e P h o t o g r a p h y
The wedding planning process for my husband Bram and me was a little different than your average bride and groom. Bram is from Belgium, so after several years in a long distance relationship, he finally arrived in the US on a fiancé visa which would allow us to marry here. There’s one pretty big detail about this visa though; it requires the couple to get married within 90 days. We planned our wedding in a quick three month time frame.
We knew we wanted to get married in my home state of Vermont, for its beautiful scenery and meaning to both of us. I grew up in the woods of a small town in a white, Greek-revival house my father designed. Our house overlooks the green mountains in a fairly remote part of the state. As for Bram, Vermont was the place he always came to when he visited. Vermont was also the first place Bram came to on his initial visit to America. Instead of flashy lights in Times Square, the cherry blossoms of DC in the spring, or the internationally recognized Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco, Bram’s experience of America for several years was the rustic nature-filled ambiance of Vermont, America’s second least populous state.