Emma Bryant and Christopher Robinson certainly had a noteworthy meet-cute.

“I found him randomly on Facebook and messaged him!” Emma recounted of their meeting when she was a ninth-grader and he was an 11th-gader at Vergennes Union High School. “We were friends of friends but didn’t know each other. After messaging back and forth on Snapchat and texting, we finally met in person at school.”

Needless to say, it went well.

“I have always been very outgoing and was surprised I didn’t scare him away with my golden retriever energy when we met, but ever since that day in high school, we have been inseparable,” Emma said.

That was nine years ago.

In August 2023, Emma was getting ready to finish up her last year of nursing school when she and Christopher paid a visit to his parents, who were living then in Tennessee. Emma suspected that engagement could be coming, but she was surprised when it actually arrived.

Photo by Amanda Rose Vincent

“We were up on Clingmans Dome on the North Carolina/Tennessee border and there were a ton of people around,” she recalled. “Knowing how shy Christopher was, I wouldn’t have expected him to do it in front of all these people! It was an amazing vacation and we felt like we were on cloud nine for the rest of the trip!”

They had a very fun time planning their special day. After nine years, they had already talked so much about what they wanted for their wedding day and so they were ready to swing into action when they got home to Plattsburgh, N.Y., from vacation.

Christopher did a lot of the planning and they tag-teamed a lot of the details so they would both be less stressed.

“We also had lots of friends and family who were incredibly helpful with the whole process,” Emma said.

They set the date for Sept. 7, 2024, at Kingsland Bay State Park in Ferrisburgh, which was near where they grew up.

“We for sure wanted to stay locally where we grew up,” Emma said. “It is such a gorgeous location with lots of amenities and they were so easy to work with …  Kingsland Bay was budget-friendly for us and we got to stay right in the heart of Addison County.”

The Robinsons said that agreeing on a budget for the wedding is important.

Photo by Amanda Rose Vincent

“We sat down and talked about everything we wanted for the day together near the beginning of our planning process and we both went head into planning knowing what we both wanted,” Emma said. “Open communication is very important in planning, as well as in your marriage!

“We also suggest doing the planning in chunks of time and not rushing everything at once. We would decide some details, for example our vendors, one week and leave another detail for the wedding for another week so we weren’t overwhelmed all at once. Also, use your resources around you and delegating tasks to others who are willing, this really saved us on our wedding day to be able to enjoy our day and not worry about the little things that go wrong with the day, because it’s inevitable that things may go wrong.”

They said they had to pull photographer Amanda Rose Vincent out of retirement to shoot their wedding.

“She is someone who took many of our prom photos throughout high school and we always knew we would want her to capture our day,” Emma said. “When she said she would, it sealed the excitement we had for our photos!”

They said their first look and private vows are absolutely something that they will love and cherish for the rest of their lives.

“We decided to do this because we wanted more time to spend with our guests during the cocktail hour and we thought private vows with just the two of us meant a lot for us,” Emma said. “It was such a beautiful moment and we started the beginning of our marriage telling each other how we will continue to love each other through all the good and bad, and that was just an amazing moment.

“Being able to share this moment together before walking down the aisle calmed our nerves and got us even more excited for the day!”

Christopher and Emma had one pretty important detail they wanted on their day.

“Our first dance song was the first song we ever slow danced to, which was John Mayer’s ‘Gravity,’” Emma said. “This has always been the song we knew we would slow dance to for our first dance and we are so glad we did it!

“It reminded us of how far we have come from our little high school selves.”