Back when I first met Kimmy, we were sharing the stage in our high school band (though admittedly, her saxophone was way cooler than my trombone). Fast forward ten years and I found myself meeting Liam, her soon-to-be husband and their two awesome boys.

Kimmy’s flowers were all hand-grown and hand-picked by herself and her bridal party, and Liam’s groomsmen gifts, gold compasses, both evoked a spirit of adventure paired with their wedding in the woods.

While I’d never been before, I found myself fascinated with Masker’s Barn, the venue they chose nestled away in Berkley Heights, New Jersey’s Deserted Village. A half mile into the Watchung Reservation, Masker’s Barn was a pleasant surprise (considering it lived in a “deserted village,” after all), having been completely renovated and restored into a homey indoor/outdoor space.

Lastly, I was particularly interested in the rope “handfast” that Kimmy and Liam used to bind their hands together during the ceremony. While the term appears to have been coined in the 1960’s, the tradition of handfasting dates back centuries.

The couples’ families each made this a day to remember and made me feel right at home with them, even despite my best efforts to blend into the background and be a fly on the wall. And the way that Kimmy and Liam looked at each other throughout the day, even when it was just the two of them, I knew that they were perfect for each other.