Melinda & David in Amenia, NY

Mel and David planned a wedding weekend so that longtime friends could catch up and spend more time together. They found the perfect spot to cater to their desired mix of informal (the BBQ rehearsal dinner) and formal (a ballroom wedding with all the trimmings) events: the Troutbeck Country Inn just two hours north of Manhattan. THE BRIDE Melinda (Mel) Greenberg THE GROOM David Morris THE DATE July 4 Mel and David's mothers had been good friends for many years, but with Mel and David's age difference (she's 33, he's 40), interest in each other was limited when they were growing up in Long Island, she says. They reunited when Mel opened a stationery store in Brooklyn, a few blocks from David's apartment. From there things proceeded quickly. Less than a year after asking Mel to move in with him, David was proposing on Christmas Eve with a ring he'd been secretly working with a designer to create.