Liz & Christian in Potsdam, NY

When Liz and Christian started planning their wedding, picking the place to marry proved to be a challenge. The two considered a destination wedding, and even took a trip to Lake Placid to scout locations, but “we really didn't find anything that felt right,” Liz says. Finally, the couple realized that there’s no place like home. The Bride Elizabeth Nordberg, 29, nurse The Groom Christian Skoglund, 30, U.S. Army Black Hawk pilot The Date July 2 By the time Christian proposed to Liz during a vacation in Boston, the two had done their fair share of long-distance dating. The couple met through Liz’s brother (he and Christian had been friends in college), just before Christian went to Korea for the army. They saw each other again the next summer and, even though there was definitely a strong connection, Christian was soon back in Korea. The pair spoke nearly every day, however, and their relationship grew. The key to their long distance success? “It just takes a lot of hard work and desire,” Liz says. Their next challenge: To plan a wedding while Christian spent the year of their engagement in Kuwait. “When I dropped him off at the airport, I bought several bridal magazines to start my planning, and he bought travel magazines to begin planning the honeymoon,” Liz says.