St. Clair Weddings

their friends. He had looked at special places to pop the question, but they just weren’t “the right place.” He knew it had to be at his aunt and uncle’s – under the willow tree that drapes over the water’s edge.

“The lake had always been an important place in my childhood and growing up. It was a really special place to do it.”

Water had been central in both their lives. Caroline was a Division I swimmer in college. He grew up on Alabama’s coast in Mobile. They met at a friend’s birthday party in Atlanta where they both worked. “We hit right off,” Caroline recalled, “and the rest is history.” They have been together ever since.

“Water was important in both our lives,” he said. “She had been with my family at the lake several times and really enjoyed it,” so he thought, ‘What better place?’ “It’s close. We can have friends. So that’s what we did. I knew Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jim could handle it.”

Mark and Caroline live in Atlanta, so he had to devise a way to get Caroline to come to Pell City and not suspect anything. His story was that they had been so busy, they needed a laid back