Article by Andrew Mayton | Owl Staff
In a small, scenic picnic area of Rock State Park, surrounded by whispering trees and close friends, two former HCC students, Greg and Chrissy, were married; and their favorite teacher, Colleen Webster, officiated the ceremony by their request.
“Colleen is just really connected to nature, smart, and I’ve known her for a really long time,” Chrissy says. “I asked her because I thought she’d be able to capture the tone of our wedding—Greg and I are not highly religious, but we’re very spiritual and feel very connected to a higher power while in nature, and we knew that Colleen feels the same way.
“It was really important that the person officiating our wedding ‘got us.’ We knew a minister wouldn’t be able to understand that sort of connection.”
“They came into my office last fall,” Webster says, “and Chrissy was teary-eyed asking me to perform their ceremony. I got teary-eyed, and I think even Greg was getting a bit teary-eyed too. I told them that I’d be completely honored to marry them.
“I’ve known Chrissy for probably twelve years at least, first as a student at HCC and she ended up living near me. I truly believed they loved each other, and I supported that, so of course I said yes.”
“In a small, scenic picnic area of Rock State Park, surrounded by whispering trees and close friends, two former HCC students, Greg and Chrissy, were married; and their favorite teacher, Colleen Webster, officiated the ceremony by their request.”
Webster, having had both Chrissy and Greg as students before and knowing them both quite well, wrote the ceremony, and instead of reading from scriptures, read poetry.
“The ceremony was spiritual in nature as opposed to religious,” Chrissy says. “It described the connection Greg and I have to each other and to the earth in general. Colleen talked a lot about what was important to us.”
Other than self-written vows, the ceremony was very traditional, with about one hundred and fifty people in attendance.
“Colleen just has this positive energy that surrounds her,” Chrissy expresses. “People told us afterward that it was the most laid-back, but beautiful ceremony they’d ever attended.”
Greg and Chrissy appropriately first met at a cookout at Rock State Park. Their first conversation revealed to each other their love of the outdoors, music, and travel, and from there, they knew they had much in common.
Chrissy is a nursing student, planning to graduate in Spring 2012, while Greg plans to enter the nursing program as well.