Spend enough time in Callicoon on a Saturday in the summer, and you’ll be able to tell when the local weddings have begun. 

It’s that time when the foot traffic in the businesses changes pace. 

There are still people, of course. My once sleepy hometown is now busting at the seams on weekends. 

It’s the pace of the people that changes. 

Those who wandered into the cute local town to explore before they dressed up in their finery have headed off to get changed and head to the ceremony. 

They’ve left behind a mix of wanderers and those whose walk shows they’ve got less time to kill and more things to do with it. 

These are the people who already know they want to grab their eggs from Channery Hill or stock up on chocolate almonds in the Callicoon Pantry. They have plans to borrow a book from the Western Sullivan Public Library or perhaps wander over to Litt Home to buy one for a friend’s upcoming birthday party. They just ate their fill of tacos at Local Pizza, and they have a movie to catch at 2 at the Callicoon Theater. 

The wedding crowd differs in that they’re not sure where they want to eat, what they want to buy or really about much aside from a hope that this town will offer a pleasant way to pass the time until wedding bells begin to chime. 

Certainly Callicoon offers plenty of that, and it’s not only as a wedding photographer that these new faces coming into our town makes me grin. 

Weddings have long served as a sign of hope, and the event itself is often used as a metaphor for bringing people together to start anew. 

It’s certainly apt for Western Sullivan County, where weddings have brought locals and visitors together as it’s given new life to some of our county’s once empty hotels, brought fresh new jobs to our economy and, of course, brought new faces to wander into our stores and eat lunch in our restaurants. 

And long after those guests have finished dancing the Cha Cha Slide and polishing off their last piece of cake, here’s hoping they’ll tell their friends about that absolutely beautiful place where you’ve just got to plan your wedding.