Article in St. Paul Dispatch March 12, 2006

Family's resort logical, lovely location for wedding ceremony

Growing up on her family's island resort on Lake Veermilion, Annie Ludlow picked the spot where she wanted to get married someday.

"I was never the kind of girl who would say, 'This is what I want my wedding to be like,' but I just always knew I wanted to get married on our swimming beach dock," says Annie.

"I think it's probably because most of my childhood memories were there. Even if it was the middle of winter, that's where we would build our snowmen. In the summers, we practically lived there in our swimsuits from May, until it was time to go back to school in August. I have such fond memories of that particular spot."

Now, Annie can add another fond memory to the dock, because that's where she and Kory Carlson were married last fall.

"After Kory and I got engaged, my dad and I were out on the boat at home, and he said, 'You deserve to get married here,' "says Annie. "I took that to mean that it is such a special place for our family, and our relationship is so special, that Kory and I deserved to get married in a special spot."

The resort made for a pretty wedding locale as well as a unique childhood: Ludlow's Island Resort is on the Ludlow family's five-acre island in northern Minnesota. As a young child, Annie remembeers she and her two brothers and a sister always wearing life jackets, just in case: having picnics on Sundown Rock: taking a boat to get anywhere: enjoying marshmallow roasts, fresh air, tourists and pine trees.

Actually, Annie remembers Kory too, but he was four years ahead of her in school, so they didn't know each other well. Their romance began as grown-ups, when they met again through a mutual friend.

As befitting Minnesotans, Kory and Annie fell in love while camping.

"We were sitting on a bench overlooking Lake Superior, looking at the stars and talking, "says Kory. "We were just friends, camping with friends, but by the end of the weekend, we were in love." Annie soon know she had found the guy who would join her in matrimony on the dock.

"I didn't think of him so much as the person I had to be with, but the person I didn't want to be without," she said.

Annie, 25, and Kory, 29, who together run a sign company, National SignEdge of Fridley, were married on the island in September. Kory began the day in classic Minnesot style. "I went fishing," he said. "We caught a dozen walleyes."

Later, wedding guests arrived by boat. Ushers dressed in Hawaiian shirts greeting them with glasses of champagne and wine. When everyone had settled into shoreline seats under a canopy tent, the bride's brother blew a conch shell to signal her arrival.

The bride, who wore orchids in her hair, walked down the dock in a lacy sheath and bare feet. "I didn't want to wear something I'd drown in if I fell in," she said.

It was a brief ceremony. "Only 15 minutes long," says Annie. "We wanted it to be meaningful but not drawn out."

Then it was time to celebrate. "After we got married, we put on our flip flops and went on a boat ride," says Annie.

By: Molly Millett, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minnesota