Emily & Alex

Emily is an ER nurse in Stroudsburg. Alex builds trails for the state parks system, which is how he knew exactly which pull-off on Camelback faces east and how long the fog usually sits there.

They had been engaged for two years and had a 180-person wedding half-planned when Emily worked four straight weeks of night shifts and they both, separately, arrived at the same conclusion in the same week.

They cancelled the big one. That is the honest version of the planning story. Deposits were lost, a few relatives were genuinely upset for a while, and they have never regretted it for a day.

What replaced it took nine days to organise: a photographer, an officiant, a licence, a dress off the rack, and nine people told where to be at 5am. The flowers were from a farm stand on Route 611.

Nine people, one mountaintop, and fog that refused to lift until the exact moment it did. Emily and Alex traded a banquet hall for a 5am drive up Camelback and a ceremony read off a phone with cold hands. Breakfast afterwards was at a diner in Tannersville, still in the dress.

If the wedding you are planning is making you dread the wedding, you are allowed to plan a different one. It is not a failure and it is not a waste. The deposits we lost cost less than one table at the reception we did not have.

And if you elope: still hire the photographer. It is the only part of the day you get to keep.