Lindsay & Benjamin CooleyBy Kristin McDonald
Photography by James Schriebl
When planning their weddings, most brides-to-be worry about the details—colors, flowers, hairstyle and accessories, bridesmaids’ dresses, headpiece or veil, horse and buggy or limousine. But not Lindsay Oglesbee. When she was planning her August ’08 wedding to Benjamin Cooley of Londonderry, her priorities were simple and clear: invite only closest family and friends, and have it in a spectacular setting.
Lindsay is from the south—Lafayette, Louisiana, with its own particular deep traditions surrounding weddings. “But if we had had it there,” she says, “it would’ve had to be a big wedding, because we couldn’t leave anyone out.” So she and Ben began to plan weddings out-of-state. “We planned about ten, I think,” says Ben. “We thought about New Orleans; Sea Island, Georgia; Hilton Head, South Carolina; the Caribbean….but Lindsay kept saying she couldn’t picture her wedding in those places. So one by one they were crossed off the list.”
Lindsay had been to Vermont several times to visit Ben; it was one of the first places they had traveled to together. She fell in love with Vermont’s beauty and rural nature. Then, in the fall of 2007, right after they became engaged, Lindsay was visiting Ben’s family in Londonderry, and it hit her—she called her mother, Susan Oglesbee, in Lafayette and said, “Mom, this is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. It’s perfect. Why would I even think about having our wedding anyplace else?”
So Lindsay got her small wedding, surrounded by just under 50 of what she calls “my people,” in the spectacular setting of Manchester. Lindsay and Ben wanted to make the event memorable for their guests, like a small vacation. So they rented a house in Stratton for Lindsay’s sisters and friends from Louisiana. “We wanted them to see both sides of Vermont—the bustling activity in Manchester and the quiet beauty of the mountains,” says Lindsay......
