A VAST Love - Trailside Wedding 

By Donna and Tom Schumchyk

Our story begins a long time ago in 1983, as childhood sweethearts. We were originally married in 1990 and have two young adult children, Justin and Christina. Unfortunately, we divorced 15 years later but always remained friends. A few years ago, we realized that we had things right the first time. This fall, we decided to get remarried while doing what we love to do together: snowmobiling with our family and friends.

Tom bought a home several years ago in Island Pond, or “Long Island Pond” as we all like to call it. Stacey and Jackie Roese, who are family through marriage, made Island Pond their home approximately 20 years ago and since then many of their family members and friends from Long Island, N.Y. have purchased homes there. 

When trying to decide where to have our ceremony, we contemplated so many of the beautiful places we have been over the years. We knew that approximately 25 people would be joining us and we were thinking about places that had a great view and would also work for our situation. We have always loved the Lewis Pond overlook on Corridor 2000 because of its magnificent views which include Mount Washington. 

We decided on the weekend of Jan. 14 because it is one of the first weekends that we all usually enjoy up there together. The annual Brighton Snowmobile Club dinner was also taking place that weekend. It was a little disheartening when we were traveling up to Island Pond on Thursday and it was raining. However, we knew we it would work out somehow. To our surprise and delight, it snowed on Friday and Tom and I took an early morning ride to the overlook on Saturday morning to see if it was safe to have everyone ride there after all the rain the day before. We were thrilled to find out that the trails were good and it was all possible. 

We rode back to town and began telling everyone to be ready in an hour and a half to meet at Stacey Roese’s house to ride together. Unfortunately, there were many that were not able to be there with us, including our parents and Jackie Roese who passed away in November 2015.

Shortly after noon, 22 of our family and friends met and rode to the overlook together. When we arrived, there were several other people at the overlook that were kind enough to stay and watch our ceremony. The ceremony was completed and we all made it back in time to make it to the Brighton Snowmobile Club dinner. We celebrated with a reception the following day. We were truly blessed!

A few months ago I received an email from Dave Casey that included few pictures and a brief overview of a trailside wedding. It did not take long to track down the details so we could share this beautiful story for all to enjoy. A very special thanks goes out to Shelly D’Amato for finding the full details and to Dave Casey for that email. We wish the newlyweds years of happiness and thank them for sharing their story and beautiful wedding photos.

– William Thomas Sr.