Valley Green Inn/ Wissahickon Park/ Fairmount Park Wedding!

Regina & Dritan were married on a beautiful and brisk day at The Valley Green Inn.  If you have never experienced a stroll through the Wissahickon Trail, you should!  We are so very lucky to live in a city that has so much beautiful nature to offer us!

Quite a few years ago I had first met Regina.  She was then a paddler on the Dragon Boat Team, Hope Afloat (my mom is a paddler as well!).  I had also gotten to know her a bit more when I accompanied the team to Australia in 2007 (what a trip!).  I hadn’t seen Regina since she had met, fallen in love with and gotten engaged to Dritan.  Many months before the wedding we met  to discuss their wedding plans.  As soon as they walked up together, I could clearly see the extra gleam that Dritan had given to her.  They were just so obviously in love and happy.  Dritan is kind, has a great sense of humor and he clearly adores his wife.  Seeing them together was really something!

Dritan is Albanian and so there were lots of Albanian wedding traditions involved that made this wedding even more fun!  There was the showering of money, lots of hand holding and  synchronized dancing.  Particularly, there was a beautiful dance between Regina & Dritan where all of the guests circled around them.  The two of them then danced around each other.  Regina would give Dritan flirty looks.  In the end, Dritan lit a handkerchief on fire and danced with it to symbolize the end of his bachelorhood.  (I really hope that I am getting this correct!!  Anyone reading, feel free to correct me!)

Anyway, it truly was a fabulous wedding!  Congrats Regina & Dritan!!!

ps… just for fun, I changed up my blog display…..

This trio was fantastic!  Joe Stevenson on the keyboard…..

I love that the ceremony was right along the trail….  strangers were able to witness their wedding and often times jump over the aisle runner!

After their First Dance I believe that I overheard the woman crying tell them that (not an exact quote) they were the 2 most in love people she has ever seen.   🙂

And lastly…. some wedding day paddle practice with two of Regina’s fabulous dragon boat coaches: