We Had Our Gatlinburg Wedding... 25 Years Later

My wife and I were married on October 9, 1999 in a rural Northwest Ohio Catholic church. As unreal as it sounds now, I had only heard of Gatlinburg. And that was only from a former co-worker who was married there herself. Prior to that, I didn’t know that it was a popular tourist location nestled in a valley by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The only other thing about it was made clear: it was a place where couples got married. It made sense. Even though I’d never seen mountains—only mole hills and corn fields—with my own eyes, I could imagine it being a beautiful setting for a romantic getaway, with the pinnacle being the exchanging of vows.

Fast forward to 2011 and subsequent years, which conjured up thoughts of “if we could only have a do-over.” Yes, if only we had known about Gatlinburg prior, we would’ve pushed to have a small wedding with our parents present, plus a few friends—whether they liked it or not. There was no guarantee we would have an opportunity or be willing to spend the money to actually renew our vows. In fact, I don’t believe we even discussed it in our 13 different calendar years as visitors.