Proof of New England Can-doism

Whoever said (was it Frost?) that New Englanders were un-neighborly was just plain wrong. We learned as much on our way back to New York from St. Albans, Vermont, just a few days ago. We had decided to drive up to Vermont at the last minute on Sunday, 8/5/07, the day after our wildly successful engagement party in Queens. The idea was to investigate whether or not Tim and Jen's (Jeremy's uncle and aunt) house on Lake Champlain might be a good venue for our June '08 wedding. We dropped off Kassi at JFK at 6:30 am on Monday (8/6/07), then braved the seven-hours worth of rainy traffic for a quick overnight at the lake. Anyway, back to New England charm and cordiality: Jen informed us how easy it is to get married in the great state of Vermont (e.g., no need for blood tests, witnesses, priestly meetings, or even IDs), so on the way back to JFK to catch a flight bound for Brazil, we stopped in the village of Ferrisbugh, VT (pop. 2,800) to sate our curiosity. The town clerk, a balding man named Chet who had lived in Ferrisburgh his whole life, was more than happy to ring up the Justice of the Peace (a charming woman named Jean Richardson), whom he wrangled from her morning gardening to come over and marry us.

Twenty-five minutes and thirty-five dollars later, we were married on the steps of the Ferrisburgh Union Hall, built in 1762 as the common church for all of the village's congregations. We each said "I do" from the same spot from which Frederick Douglass in 1843 exhorted Ferrisburghers to take up the abolitionist cause. When the two-minute ceremony was over, we walked across the town green under 200-year old maples planted for the area's Revolutionary War dead. We said our goodbyes to Ferrisburgh, got back in the car, and kept going south through the Catskills and the Hudson Valley. On a pit stop, Maddy engaged tradition and used her lipstick to announce to those on the interstate that we were "Just Married!" Though we've no still photographs of the event, we do have one of the car's windshield, and we did record the ceremony with Jeremy's new digital camcorder; we owe Jean and Chet many thanks for this indulgence!. Truth is, they were more than happy--maybe even a bit giddy--to have been shaken from their Tuesday routines to marry us, crazy whirling kids, passing through, always on our way, taken aback by the simple charm of the town and the plain directness of its people.

The marriage certificate Jeremy is filling out in the photo is proof positive that we are not making any of this up. The state of Vermont considers us married, and as the saying goes, "What the state of Vermont hath drawn together, let not man (nor New Hampshire) put asunder." To be clear, however: we are hoping to have, as planned, a wedding celebration somewhere in the United States in late June (probably 6/28/2008). That event will be an opportunity for us to exchange our vows (which we are writing now) and for friends and family to meet and enjoy one another's company.

Love to all,
Maddy & Jeremy