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Devoted aunt Annie Spencer flew in from her San Francisco home to take her North Carolina nephews on a vacation to New Bern, with plenty of plans for games, beach time and family adventures.

A North Carolina native, Annie was struck by how familiar the area seemed to her as she and the boys drove along the road. She called her mom to find out why.

Her teenage boyfriend Michael McCoy and his family lived in the New Bern area, her mom confirmed. The McCoys, in fact, were still there.

Mike and Annie had met in 1995 when both attended N.C. Adventures in Science and Math at UNC-Wilmington. He was a rising senior from Cove City. She was a rising junior from Fuquay-Varina.

“We were each other’s first kiss,” Annie recalls.

Their parents approved of the teenage romance and did what they could to make sure the young people had several opportunities to get together. Unfortunately, time and distance had its impact and the two parted ways.

Mike went to college, got married, settled in North Carolina, had three children.

Annie went to college, moved to San Francisco and traveled the world.

Fast-forward to 2007 and a fun drive with a car full of noisy nephews. Annie called the McCoys to say hi. Excited to hear from her, Mike’s parents welcomed a visit from their son’s old girlfriend.

Imagine Annie’s surprise when Mike was there, too, and now separated from his wife.

“He and I sat down for the first time after 12 years, and it was as if those years melted away,” Annie wrote to us in her letter. “A few months later, I moved back to North Carolina.”

They married March 14, 2009.

The traditional wedding at First Baptist Church in New Bern contained some special elements honoring Annie’s Filipino heritage.

“We blended Filipino and American traditions. We had the traditional bridesmaids and groomsmen and the candle-lighting ceremony, but we also had the arrhae (coins), the veil and the cord ceremonies, from the Filipino tradition,” she said.

The coins represent the groom’s dedication to the welfare of the bride and signify the couple’s mutual hope for wealth, prosperity and security. The veil is a symbol of the faithful and everlasting love the bride and groom have for each other. The Veil Sponsors, traditionally a couple whose marriage the bride and groom would like to emulate, pin the veil on the groom’s shoulders and extend it to cover the bride’s head and shoulders to symbolize the unity of the two families.

The cord symbolizes the love and friendship that bind the couple together, and its figure-eight shape represents the infinite nature of matrimony.

A highlight of the wedding for bride and groom was that so many children were involved in the big day, including Mike’s three children, Dylan, 10, Jade, 8, and Lexi, 7. “We had four flower girls,” Annie said, adding that the younger set kept the dance floor at the reception at the Sheraton hopping all night long.

The New Bern Sheraton, changing soon to a Hilton hotel, did a great job with the arrangements for the bride and groom, Annie said, accommodating a guest list that continued to grow, in the end reaching the 200 mark.

They thanked their guests with a special treat from their own New Bern-area farm, pecans they candied and bagged themselves.

Now, they look forward to the things they enjoy most, playing board games together and with their kids, traveling to exciting destinations when the opportunity arises and being active parents both in sports and at school.