The Wedding of Kristin & Michael
KRISTIN + MICHAEL HART
Michael & Kristin became Husband and Wife on this beautiful Saturday in July, at Springwater Park near Barrie. Following is an excerpt that tells the story of their first meeting on the Pacific Crest Trail. It was written and delivered by Mary Coleman, the Wedding Officiant and family friend of the Hart Family of Indianapolis.
Welcome. Kristin and Michael want to thank you for coming today. You are their community, their family, their friends. We are here to celebrate a love story, to commemorate their commitment to each other, and to cheer them on as they continue on their adventures together. First, we thank the parents — Jennifer and Dan, Mike and Marsha — without whose own love story we wouldn’t be here. Bringing up babies is never easy, but today marks one of the joyful highlights in this process. Your once babies are now responsible, caring, intelligent and beautiful adults. Congratulations.
Kristin’s and Michael’s story around meeting and falling in love is amazing. Remarkable, actually. They talk about it as the miracle when the stars aligned — the timing was such that each was in the right place at the right time in the right circumstances. Probably all of you know parts of this tale. Here’s the plot of our story — Girl meets boy, boy meets girl. Their first date is a long walk, a very long walk. They get to know each other, spending many hours talking and walking and eating a lot of terrible junk food and candy, and drinking caffeine and beer. They get very smelly, and hairy, sometimes really hot and sometimes really cold. The elements are the antagonists in our story — the weather, the challenges of the walk, the mountain. The mountain attacks the Boy but the the Girl has a magic wand she uses to summon help that arrives in the form of the energy of many flying horses. The flying machine whisks the boy away to the Castle of Healing and the girl valiantly carries on, battling the mountain with a worry in her heart for the Boy. As fate would have it, the Boy just happens to have visiting relatives in this far off land near to the Castle of Healing, and once the Boy is well, the family is able to help the Boy and Girl reunite so that they may continue upon their epic journey. This Trial by Trail has brought us to today. You really can’t make this stuff up.
Kristin and Michael were both open to meeting someone special as they set out on their separate adventures from their separate cities, separate countries. They each carried with them their values of exploration, hard work, enjoyment of nature and animals and wicked senses of humor. As they traveled the Pacific Crest Trail they had to put their values to the test — it’s one thing to talk about teamwork or respect or equality or reciprocity or balance and it’s a whole other thing to have to practice these values because your life literally depends on it. Michael and Kristin passed these tests. The time on the PCT provided them a structural foundation for the rest of their lives together. In a time of great adversity, they acted as a team and relied on community. They lived their respect for the natural world. They learned when enough was enough, when to communicate and when to honor silence, when to challenge each other and when to let go.
Michael and Kristin say they are not inherently risk-taking individuals, but together they agree to take on the risks and rewards of marriage. They pledge to celebrate the unexpected, to be open to new possibilities, to practice unselfishness and encouragement, and to enjoy the pay-offs that will sometimes come in surprising ways. Let us all support them, as we can, on this journey and hold them in our hearts.
The reception was held at Redline Brewhouse. During dinner, a slideshow played telling the story of their meeting and almost 6-month long first date. During the speeches, another slideshow told their story from the beginning up to their meeting. Click the buttons below to view the shows.
