Emily & Ryan's Wallkill / Pine Bush NY Kingdom Hall Albania-meets-Ecuador-meets NY wedding

Emily and Ryan first met when he was serving in Albania,

and she was planning to move there. 

They had both done extensive volunteer work in the US,  both on NY construction projects, and also working with disaster relief post-hurrican Katrina. Emily had also worked in Bethel for four years, and Ryan had graduated from a special ministers school here in the US pre-moving-to-Europe. Yet they barely knew each other until....

Albania.

 Ryan was serving in the region, and was assigned to head up part of a Kingdom Hall construction project there in Kosovo. He had that heard Emily would be in the area for that build project also, so asked if she could work with him and his crew. Emily says it was because she could understand the names of tools in English and apothecary non-metric measurements. I'm kind of doubtful, but that's the story : )

As it turned out, that few weeks of working together on the Kingdom Hall led to a strong friendship, and maybe much more- but was it mutual? 

After countless long workday conversations and hours spent in a coffee shop after the workdays finished,  their own beautiful love story journal was beginning its opening chapters. 

A funny thing with their families- they go waaaayyyyy back! Ryan's uncle John, who gave their beautiful wedding talk, used to be Emily's dad's roommate back in Brooklyn decades ago. And Emily actually used to work with Ryan's mom when they commuted together to Bethel. It seemed that, if their parents could have arranged this marriage, they definitely would have! 

So although I could go on and on and write a book about these two Americans in Albania and their love story, it's time to let you see some highlights from their beautiful wedding day, as the remainder of the digital developing work is completed. Be sure to check out the piggy back ride he gave her as she preserved her injured foot for the ceremony and dancing, as well as Ryan's chivalrous knight-in-shining-armour gallantry as he carried Emily to the pretty flowering trees along Red Mills Road for their post-first-look portrait time. Enjoy! 

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