The stresses of the pandemic have taken their toll on everyone. In my little corner of the world, many, many weddings have not gone to plan or had to drastically change course. Nevertheless, Mia found a unique way to make her nuptials a tremendous spark of joy at the very turn of spring. How, you ask? By surprising her fiance with a wedding, of course.

Yup.

I’m not sure how long ago the idea occurred to her, but she told me she let him think they “had” to wait until the summer to wed, when the vaccine would be available and the pandemic hopefully calmed, even though that meant they would have just relocated to rural Alaska due to the needs of Ryan’s job. Instead, she enlisted the help of a select few friends and family to pull off this magical surprise - and I’m telling you guys. You. Should. Have. Seen. His. Smile.

So much laughter! Ryan’s eyes were huge as he admitted he figured SOMETHING was up when his two best friends made him don a fancy outfit instead of tanning hides as they’d planned for the day…but he was NOT expecting this!

This very well may have been a once-in-a-lifetime wedding to witness. Talk about a bucket list!