Haven on the Hill

Ashville hilltop retreat drawing visitors from around the world

Story by Paul South
Photos by Bob Crisp

A picturesque two-story farmhouse nestled against a St. Clair County hillside beckons visitors with a wraparound porch that practically says, “Y’all come.”

Combine that down home feel with culinary masterpieces that include the white tablecloth elegance of eggs Benedict or the salmon or chicken piccata for a wonderful dining experience.

Try the brunch staple Southern comfort of sausage gravy and biscuits, and you get just a bite of the farm to table magic of Corinne Burnham’s Haven on the Hill bed and breakfast and The Crooked Crown Restaurant, all in the same locale on Alabama Highway 23.

But that’s not nearly the whole story of the inn just outside Ashville that has welcomed visitors from across the country and around the world since Burnham rolled out the welcome mat three years ago.

Burnham, a Massachusetts native with more than 30 years of culinary experience, has a story as rich as s steaming bowl of clam chowder from her native New England.

This chef’s kitchen journey began at 14 when she landed a job frosting doughnuts at Adam’s, a local shop in Greenfield, Mass.

“When I was 15, I was old enough to work the counter,” she said. “Then I became a waitress, and I just absolutely loved it. I decided to follow through with the cooking end of things and moved forward in that direction.”

Then came a successful catering business in 1998. She opened her first restaurant in 2003. Rooster’s Bistro in Northfield, Mass.

What attracted her to the demanding, highly competitive restaurant industry?

“I enjoy the adrenaline rush from it.” Burnham said. “I love to create beautiful food and I’ve always had constantly changing seasonal menus in all my restaurants. I like when I look out into the dining room and see all the happy faces. I like the rush of that.”

Relax and enjoy a bite on the front porch

And she’s seen beaming faces from everywhere. Keep in mind. This is not a typical bed and breakfast. The restaurant is open for dinner on the weekends and also offers box lunches on request.

“I keep a canvas map of the world in an upstairs bathroom,” she said. “It’s really beautiful. I put a pin in the map every time someone visits, you know, from different states and different countries.”

Visitors have come from Ukraine, Australia and across western Europe. It’s a testament to how technology has revolutionized global tourism. On the morning of this interview, her Leibnitaz, Australia guest booked what will be her 12th visit to Haven on the Hill.

“She went to college over here and comes to visit her husband’s family and her college friends. She visits three or four times a year. After her 10th visit, I gave her a T-shirt,” she said.

“I put myself out on social media, Booking.com, Travelocity, and I think that those networks are where I get a lot of my overseas guests.”

Burnham also draws her share of domestic travelers. Every seven weeks, a father and son travel over from Georgia so that the Dad can lunch with his high school classmates.

Haven on the Hill features comfortable bedroom and bath accommodations

Her own journey to St. Clair County began in 2015 when her son Kyle joined the Navy, making her an empty nester.

“I had wanted and had always been attracted to living in the South and had done some traveling in the South throughout my life, and I told myself that if the opportunity ever came up … I was definitely going to get myself out of the snow. People here are just so friendly.”

She sees a spark of the Divine in her St. Clair story.

“I put my restaurant up for sale on a Thursday and had a cash offer that following Monday,” Burnham said. “I thought, ‘God’s telling me to do something,’ so I moved to Chattanooga first and became the number one caterer in Chattanooga in the first six months I was there.”

Then she explored Alabama and “fell in love” with Mentone, the closest thing the state has to an alpine village. She opened Plowshares restaurant there. After that, she opened a restaurant in Ft. Payne called 33. Haven on the Hill, her fourth restaurant, opened three and a half years ago.

The idea of a bed and breakfast in Ashville initially met with some skepticism. Burnham started slow as she converted the former private home to what it is today.

Haven on the Hill can also be the perfect venue

“It took about six months to change the carpet and the décor, and I thought I would just continue to cater, and we will see what happens,” she said. “I put a sign at the bottom of the hill, and it was just three or four months, and I was selling out all the rooms upstairs. So I ended up converting my two-car garage into an innkeeper’s suite so I’d have another room to rent out.”

The name for Haven on the Hill came naturally, she recalled.

“You can’t see another property from this property, and it’s on a hill. I just thought it was such a peaceful haven. You sit and listen to the birds. The people I bought the property from have a 200-acre cattle farm and sometimes through the trees you can see the farm animals. It’s really a true haven.”

Over time, as word spread about breakfasts at the inn, Burnham began getting requests for dinners, not just from overnight guests, but from staycationers as well, who would day trip from places like Birmingham and Odenville. A side porch – called The Crooked Crown was opened last November.

Overnight guests are served breakfast in the dining room from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. On weekends, The Crooked Crown opens from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. by reservation only for the general public. Dinner is served Friday and Saturday nights from 5 until 8.

Asked her philosophy of the restaurant business after 35 years in the kitchen, Corinne Burnham put it simply. “Food is my love language.”

She elaborated with a story. One morning, three couples were enjoying breakfast at Haven on the Hill. They began to talk about what their career paths might have been and drew Burnham into the conversation. One woman asked, “What would you have done?”

Crooked Crown table setting

She instantly responded. It seemed in an instant she was 14 again, gleefully icing doughnuts at Adam’s.

“A chef. I love what I do. I’m extremely passionate about what I do. It brings me so much joy to watch people enjoy the experience that I can create for them; I’m truly blessed that God has given me the ability to do what I have done.”

And she still remembers a lesson from Brad Smith, her boss at the first restaurant where she worked as a waitress. In her early days as a restauranteur, she would call him on Sunday afternoons, exhausted and on the verge of tears.

“Always have faith in yourself,” Smith told her. “And you have to continue to push through and get that last ticket out, regardless of what the situation is. And be kind to yourself, even when times are stressful in a very difficult industry.”

And for customers?

“People don’t want to eat the same thing. You have to keep customers curious about what’s around the next corner.”

And, for new diners who are uncertain of what to order, she has a gentle instruction.

“I’ll make it for you, and if you don’t like it, I’ll make you something else. And I’ve never had to make something else.””

Weddings: How the Lakeside wedding came to be

Story by Paul South
Submitted Photos

In seemingly every forever love story, there’s tradition – a band of gold, a diamond engagement ring, family, friends and joy.

But while some things never change, every couple puts their own stamp on their special day.

Hallie and Hunter Craton were no exception.

But the couple added in bits of themselves. Think a down home rehearsal dinner, a bit of espionage and a trip South of the Border.

And just as Logan Martin Lake provided a breathtaking backdrop for their wedding, the ageless body of water was home to another courtship milestone.

Popping the Question

As a small-town young  man raised with small town values, Hunter had already asked Hallie’s folks for her hand. But to borrow a word from college football television analysts, he had to resort to a little “trickeration” to pop the question.

“I spent a lot of weeks prior trying to sneak around town looking for rings and stuff,” he says. “Once I got the ring, I went over to my best friend’s house trying to come up with a date. I was so nervous, just talking about it.”

Hunter, along with his co-conspirators – his friends and hers – made sure she was dressed for a special night out and got her to a friend’s lakeside dock, decorated with a table, candles and pictures.

“She thought she was going to eat with her friends, and they brought her over there. When she came around the house, Hallie saw me standing on the pier.”

The couple’s parents hid nearby, to watch the big moment go down.

“I was shocked, not that he asked me. I had an idea,” Hallie says. “I expected it to happen two weeks later, on our six-year anniversary. I didn’t expect it to happen when it did.”

She initially thought someone was working on the dock when she recognized Hunter.

“I actually saw my Mom hiding in the bushes before I saw him,” she says.

Hunter said a few words that will belong to the couple alone, Hallie recalled. But the moment was emotional.

“He asked me to marry him. I was shaking, so excited. It was beautiful.”

And both wept, just as they would almost a year later on their wedding day.

The Vows

Just as the couple will keep the words of the proposal to themselves, so it was with their vows.

“We did private vows between the two of us before the wedding,” Hallie says. “Hunter isn’t much of a public speaker and we wanted to share them in private. It was very sweet and very intimate.”

The Rings

In another nod to tradition, Hallie’s engagement ring is a solitaire round diamond on a thin gold band. Her wedding band is a thin gold band with diamonds across.

“I wanted something that would be appropriate through the ages,” she says.

Hunter’s wedding band is the timeless gold band.

“Hallie talked me into it.  I originally wanted a ring that was gold or wood with antler laid into it because I’m a big hunter and fisherman. “But Hallie was having none of it.”

Perhaps a bigger chore than picking a ring was buying it without Hallie finding out.

Hunter’s red pickup is easy to spot in Pell City and Hallie – her Mom says – is “nosy, always up in everybody’s business” and tracks her loved ones with her Smartphone. So, the trick for Hunter was to buy the rings without Hallie finding out.

What They Wore

Hallie’s Robert Bullock-designed dress in the Lilac Dream style was crafted from a luxurious crepe material. The form-fitting frock has a strapless bodice and features a square neckline, adding to the sophisticated look, as well as a cathedral style veil.

For the reception, Hallie added a bow to the back of the gown.

Hunter was clad in a traditional, timeless black tuxedo.

A Pulled Pork Party

While the wedding rehearsal was at the site of the wedding, the after party was celebrated at Hallie’s grandfather’s next door.

Hosted by Hunter’s Mom and stepdad, pulled pork from Butts to Go in Pell City, along with the eatery’s delicious baked potato salad and baked beans.

“Hunter’s Mom and her friends really came through. They decorated it up, and it was very nice,” Jennifer Hannah says.

Members of the family and the wedding party delivered speeches, celebrating the happy couple.

“It was really sweet and sentimental to have that special time with our closest friends and family before the wedding,” Hallie says.

In a nod to her younger years, Hallie and her bridesmaids had a sleepover at her grandfather’s house. Some of Hunter’s groomsmen did the same at his house.

A Mexican Honeymoon

Enjoying the honeymoon

The couple celebrated their honeymoon in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, at the all-inclusive Hotel Xcaret Arte.

“We had the best time,” Hallie says. “We ate at a new restaurant for lunch and dinner every day. The beach was beautiful.”

Along with lounging at the pool, the couple went scuba diving and swam through miles of caves under the turquoise water. On land, they rode ATVs.

“It was a great, great honeymoon,” Hallie says.

Hunter and Hallie worked with a travel planner. The bride likes laid back vacations. Hunter is a go-getter. The couple found middle ground.

“I like to sit on the beach and rot, I like to say. Hunter likes to do stuff and be very active. We tried to find a place that would satisfy both,” she says.

Two final notes

Hunter Craton isn’t only a gentleman, but an Auburn man to his heart. The wedding was the same day as the Tigers’ matchup with rival LSU.

“I couldn’t miss an Auburn game, even on my wedding day. It was the only thing I asked for.”

The solution was a big screen TV at the reception. Auburn lost. But no one would disagree, Hallie and Hunter won – big.

This, Hallie says, is a man with priorities. “It just tells me how lucky I am.”

And in a distinctly Logan Martin Lake love story moment, Hunter tells about when the wedding photographer wanted to get some shots of the newlyweds as the lovely sun sank in the west.

“We had to wait for a bass boat to pass before we could take the picture.”

Weddings: Newlyweds

Couple shares their love story

Story and photos
by Mackenzie Free

“I used to think a wedding was a simple affair. Boy and girl meet, they fall in love, he buys a ring, she buys a dress, they say I do. I was wrong. That’s getting married. A wedding is an entirely different proposition. “
– George Banks in Father of the Bride

Father of the Bride was one of my all-time favorite movies growing up. It was wholesome and funny, and it played into so many girls’ pre-Pinterest ideas of what a dream wedding looked like.

But George, the father of the bride (played by the eternally cool Steve Martin), wasn’t wrong. Getting married and having a wedding are two very different things.

No one knows this better than newlyweds and, of course, their photographer – me – who shot their wedding celebration the second time around. This St. Clair County couple – Zach and Gracie (Bright) Walker – became newlyweds twice, opting for a ‘real wedding’ after an initial elopement.

I have been shooting weddings for years and honestly, no two are exactly alike. Here, at Discover, we thought we would take you behind the scenes for Zach and Gracie’s special day in a conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Walker.

The two began dating in February of 2023 and to say they fell in love fast would be an understatement. By June of the same year, they decided they were ready to get married and eloped to the courthouse.

However, having a celebratory wedding was never officially off the table and after a few months, these newlyweds decided it was time to start planning their big day.

How we met

We’ve really known each other forever. I was his daughter’s daycare teacher, and he messaged me asking if he needed a babysitter for Addalynn, would I do it?

The Highlands Chapel at Howe Farms wedding venue

I never talked to him until I was Addalynn’s teacher, and we would just talk about her when he’d pick her up, but I was always friends with Dalton and Derrick, his brother and cousin, so it’s crazy how I ended up with Zach.

Getting together

We started dating February 2023 and got married at the courthouse June 2023. We literally got matching tattoos a month after being together.

The planning

Zach said “because my wife is a bright person,” I did NOT want a fall wedding because I couldn’t stand the thought of a dark wedding. It’s just not me. The flowers and bright colors really do match my personality.

I also wanted it to be fun for Addalynn. I remember asking her what colors she wanted, and she said pink, blue, purple … and brown. I said, ‘How about brown (chocolate) cake?’

I just thought flowers would be simple and fun, and I wanted everyone to be able to wear whatever color they wanted.

Mother of the bride, Susan Bright, watches her husband, Travis, and only daughter, Gracie, during the father daughter dance

Mom said the florist told her she was so happy I chose color because she gets tired of everyone just wanting white bouquets. She was super sweet.

The big day

I wish we would’ve had the wedding closer to home so more people would’ve come and so everyone would’ve stayed longer. But then again, the chapel really was perfect.

I’m so thankful Addalynn was included in our vows. She made the whole wedding. It was her day, too. I love how she gave her very own speech. We had no idea she was going to do that.

I didn’t know Dalton was giving a speech until day of either. So, I think the thought of an open mic at a wedding would be super fun.

Weddings: Photographers’ perspective

A key decision in any wedding plan is capturing those special moments on the big day. After all, these memories last a lifetime.

In an interview with Mackenzie Neely of Neely Creative and Lara Wilkerson of Laura Wilkerson Art, here’s some advice from those who know – the photographers who make it happen.

Would you guys mind telling me one piece of advice you would have for a couple in preparing for their wedding day?

Makenzie:

“Don’t put too much pressure on yourself or your family. Try to let your vendors take on the things that need to be done day of so you all can be in the moment. Everything falls into place when you just enjoy the day!”

Lara:

Laura Wilkerson

“One piece of advice I would tell a bride and groom is to make their wedding day genuinely, and wholly about each other. You and your future spouse are unique. Make your wedding reflect yourselves. I feel we often get consumed with friends’ and family’s opinions and compromising what we want to make others happy. Your wedding day is YOUR day to celebrate each other as a couple. Celebrate it however you want.”

What is something you wish more couples would do or incorporate into their big day?

Makenzie:

“I wish couples would do things that are more their personality than a trend. Trends fade. You will never regret making your wedding unique and you at the end of the day. “

What are your favorite photos to take at weddings?

Laura:

“Some of my favorite photos I have ever taken during a wedding is when the couple can just be themselves. This often happens when they get a moment alone together to take the day in. Wedding days can often be a blur. If you’re planning your wedding day, plan at least 30 minutes of alone time with your spouse (and photog *wink*). This “alone” time can be during a first look or after the ceremony during bride and groom portraits. Slow down and breathe for a moment. During this time is usually when I capture the most candid, raw and genuine emotions of the bride and groom.”

Is there anything you’d like to see more of at weddings?

Mackenzie Neely

Makenzie:

“Couples making the day for more their personality than trends.”

This could be in a separate info box:

Makenzie Neely

Neely Creatvie Photo Co.

www.neelycreativephoto.com

Real Wedding for Saint Clair County couple Zach + Gracie Walker

Lakeside wedding

A celebration of love, family and fun

Story by Paul South
Submitted photos

In the movies, love stories begin in glitzy spots, like the top of the Empire State Building, or with blind date jitters or online mysteries.

But Hunter and Hallie Hannah Craton’s road to romance began – as it is with many folks – over dinner. In their case, steaming plates of Mexican food – her go-to chicken enchilada with sour cream and fajita quesadilla for him – spiced up the first date.

Seven years later, on Oct. 14, 2023, the two were married at a spot more beautiful than any Manhattan skyscraper, on the banks of Logan Martin Lake and in sight of the iconic Pirate Island. The wedding was celebrated at a family friend’s lakeside home, the rehearsal dinner and reception next door at Hallie’s grandfather’s home.

Trees adorned with lights and the lake teamed with an altar crafted from a gold ring of flowers.

“It was so beautiful, we didn’t have to do too much,” Hallie recalls.

The couple had become engaged almost a year to the day before, on the banks of the lake, a fitting spot for two Pell City kids. From their first date fiesta to the wedding, seven years passed. Their relationship endured being separated by college. Hunter majored in building science at Auburn, Hallie in marketing at Jacksonville State.

Hallie works in sales, while Hunter works for Goodgame Company, both in Pell City.

Again, with a touch of serendipity, they were engaged on the anniversary of their first date.  But Hunter Craton knew that she was his forever love long before the diamond ring.

“Within about a month of the first date, I pretty much knew,” Hunter says. “She’s got a great personality, and that’s pretty much what stood out to me. She was a lot of fun to be around.”

College has extinguished more than one high school flame, but not for these two. For them, love never failed. They weathered separation and a year of wedding prep. “It actually made us stronger,” Hallie says.

And there were differences in personality, Hunter is an admitted introvert, but Hallie “brought me out of my shell,” he says.

Hallie was smitten sooner. She put it this way: “When you know, you know. I fell in love with Hunter almost immediately,” she says. “Hunter is kind to all, funny, dependable and has felt like home from the moment I met him.”

She adds, “I never knew I needed someone like Hunter in my life,” she says. “He calms me.”

And while other couples fall for the trends of the day, Hallie and Hunter were traditional. Hunter, gentleman to the core, asked her parents for her hand.

“He absolutely did,” Hallie’s mother, Jennifer Hannah, says. “He texted us and wanted us to meet him for dinner and said we don’t need Hallie to know about it. We kind of knew what it was.

“They were already making life decisions and financial decisions based on what the other was doing.”

It begs a question: What took them so long?

After high school, Hunter joined the union, then toiled as an ironworker for several months before commuting for a few classes at Auburn, then transferring to campus to complete his degree.

“There was a lot of prep needed financially before we went through all this from the engagement to the wedding,” Hunter says. “We wanted to make sure we were ready for all that.”

They were ready. And while many in this part of the world choose church weddings, others courthouse nuptials, even elopement, the lake was always the place for the future Mr. and Mrs. Craton. It was a family place, a place of memories for generations of Hallie’s family.

“It was the only special place in my heart to me,” she says. “What makes it even more special was not only does my grandfather live there, my cousin lives nearby as well. My aunt lives just across the street. We’ve always been big lake people. I’ve always wanted to get married at the lake.”

Lake at sunset makes ideal backdrop for ceremony

While the actual wedding party was “very formal” – black tie and black formal dresses, the guests were allowed to be casual.

“We didn’t really care what people wore,” Hallie says. “We’re very casual people. When it came to what (guests) wore, we were more semi-formal.”

It was the wedding of Hallie’s dreams.

“I always pictured the black and white theme. We had a square black and white dance floor.

While wedding planning can sometimes deteriorate into a Jerry Springer-style throwdown, Hallie and her Mom had only one “knock down drag out in the days right before the blessed event.

Chairs.

“Back in the day, when I got married, I was not working like Hallie and Hunter. I’d just graduated from college, and I was about to start my first teaching job. So (for Hallie and Hunter’s day), I was ‘Whatever you want. Whatever you want,” except when it came to those chairs. We got in a fight about chairs.”

But the blowout eased pre-wedding nerves.

“It was a small thing. But we were stressed out,” Hallie says. “We needed to have a cry. Planning a wedding is stressful, especially when it’s just you, your Mom and the coordinator for a 300-plus person wedding on the lake.”

The couple, their parents and friends did a lot of the pre-wedding decorating themselves late into several evenings, stringing up white lights in the surrounding trees and other tasks for the wedding. Elegance carried the day.

And it seems with every wedding, something funny happens.

Hallie’s first drop at the reception did the trick.

“I tore my dress,” she says. “It ripped right below my butt, and it was a big hole in my brand new, beautiful dress.”

Humor also came from a little 1980s rock n’ roll.

Dan, Hunter’s  brother-in-law, closed the ceremony reading the lyrics from The Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News.

“At first we had no idea where he was going,” Jennifer says. “It was sweet. It was funny. It was perfect. (Dan) was there for all of their love story, so it was perfect.”

And of course, there was the father-daughter dance, a month in the making.

“Hallie is a great dancer,” Jennifer says.

And her Dad, Jason Hannah?

“He’s a Dad.”

It was a magical night.

But what advice would they give to others planning their weddings?

The mother of the bride was brief:

“Destination wedding.”

Hunter wasn’t much involved in the planning, save the two weeks prior to the big night. Then he was hard at it, stringing lights that hung like low stars on the lakeside.

“That was my time to shine.”

What advice would he give to friends and perhaps a future son?

“Get ready to work.”

As for Hallie, she says, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.

“There’s no need to worry about the small stuff, because the small stuff that I worried so much about for my wedding, I barely even recognized the day of. There’s a balance when you’re having a wedding,” Hallie says. “As long as you maintain that everything will be OK.”

Weddings: The proposal

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Mackenzie Free

After dating a year and a half, Caroline Williams and Mark Anderson knew they were going to get engaged to be married. But when and where were simply question marks. That is, until Mark devised a plan that would not only include his bride-to-be, but their families and friends, too.

Making all of it a surprise was just another hurdle to be cleared.

Of course, he had to have help to pull it off, so “a quick call to Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jim” was the logical, first step. The fun-loving couple seemed ideal for the job. After all, Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jim are Laurie and Jim Regan, owners of Pirate Island on Logan Martin Lake and have certainly earned the reputation of perfect hosts, opening their island up to just about every boater on the lake.

“We knew we would get engaged eventually,” Mark said. “It was important to me that the engagement be what we really wanted and really loved. I knew she had always dreamed of friends and family being able to share it, too.”

So, Mark went to work scheming and planning with the Regans, their families and their friends. He had looked at special places to pop the question, but they just weren’t “the right place.” He knew it had to be at his aunt and uncle’s – under the willow tree that drapes over the water’s edge.

“The lake had always been an important place in my childhood and growing up. It was a really special place to do it.”

Water had been central in both their lives. Caroline was a Division I swimmer in college. He grew up on Alabama’s coast in Mobile. They met at a friend’s birthday party in Atlanta where they both worked. “We hit right off,” Caroline recalled, “and the rest is history.” They have been together ever since.

“Water was important in both our lives,” he said. “She had been with my family at the lake several times and really enjoyed it,” so he thought, ‘What better place?’  “It’s close. We can have friends. So that’s what we did. I knew Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jim could handle it.”

Mark and Caroline live in Atlanta, so he had to devise a way to get Caroline to come to Pell City and not suspect anything. His story was that they had been so busy, they needed a laid back weekend out of Atlanta. “Why not go hang out with Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jim at the lake?,” he asked. And they did.

They went out to dinner Friday night and spent a leisurely Saturday morning with Caroline not suspecting a thing. Then, he had another idea, he told her. “It would be fun to go cruise on the pontoon and check out the island.”

Aunt Laurie made an excuse not to go, and she stayed behind to orchestrate what would come next.

They loaded up on the boat, Jim turned the key, and “it wouldn’t turn on. We (Mark and Jim) were making eye contact with each other like, Oh my God!” Meanwhile, “a train of cars were lined up on Blackberry Lane waiting to turn into the house.”

Jim was texting Laurie to let her know what happened, and he insisted he could get the boat going with jumper cables.

“I felt bad,” an unsuspecting Caroline said. “I kept saying we don’t have to go. It’s OK. It’s not a big deal, we can hang out on the dock.”

“No, we’re going on the boat,” Jim insisted. A supportive Mark said, “You know how Uncle Jim is when he sets his mind to something.”

The boat started, and they cruised on the pontoon boat as planned and then headed back to pick up Aunt Laurie, or so Caroline thought. There was a cooler sitting under the willow tree, and Jim asked Caroline and Mark to grab it for him because it was too heavy.

As they started walking over, Mark started his proposal speech. It was at that moment the dots began to connect, Caroline said, and she thought, “Oh, my God, it’s happening! I started sobbing. The ring was in the cooler, he reached in and grabbed the ring and got down on one knee.”

“The first voice I heard was my dad. Then I heard the others, and I saw a huge group of our friends – from Charlotte, DC, Atlanta – extended family who came for that moment. It was all the people we love running toward us. It was great.”

“I was very anxious” in the days leading up to the proposal party, Mark said. He thought about all the people involved and all the moving parts. “But at the end of the day, the most important thing is, I’m getting engaged to the girl I love,” he said, remembering how that thought made him calm.

“It was going to work out perfect. I’m not looking at weather and knew we were the first domino to fall. I was going to be engaged to her. However it happened, it was going to work out perfectly,” he said. “It was still different than I envisioned. It was much better than anything I ever dreamed up.”

“I was so surprised,” Caroline said. “I had no idea it was going to be that weekend, and with our family and friends there, it was a whole other level.” Just like Mark, it was well beyond her expectations.

“Girls always imagine their own picture of perfection – the nails, the dress,” she said. “I was wearing a bathing suit cover up left over from high school! It was so perfect – getting engaged to the love of my life with people I love.”