– pictures to follow –
The reception was at the Inn at Kelly’s Ford, which was also where Elyse’s family was staying. It’s in the country, on the far side of a one-lane bridge, with a stable and a riding ring setting up for a horse show a hundred yards away.
The room, like the Fredricksburg Colonial Inn, was full of Civil War decor. As a yankee I found that a little off-putting, but thinking of all the Civil War history in the area — that link goes to SeeAmerica.org, not the National Park Service — I can understand it. Besides the big battles of Chancellorsville and Wilderness within a dozen miles, there was a small cavalry fight right at Kelly’s Ford quite close to the inn. There’s a page from an 1863 edition of the New York Times with news of that battle posted up in the main building of the inn.
Maybe it’s standard at places like that, but in contrast to the Civil War firearms on the walls, there was a video projector hanging on the ceiling projecting a laptop-controlled slideshow of photos of the bride and groom. They had met as park rangers at Cave of the Winds National Park in South Dakota.