My Best Friend's Wedding

We've been friends forever, but when we attended Ricks together, she would introduce herself to others, "Hey, I'm Eike (Eye - key) , like Nike." A little cheesy but very efficient, rarely did people ever ask how to pronounce her name again and people never forgot her. Not because of this intro but because there's nobody else like her. I think she now goes by the correct German pronounciation, Eye - kah.

She's the type of person that always has a nickname for everyone. I was Squirt, or Yoshi, but mainly, Kame. (Kah - may, which is my Okinawan middle name.) She's still Schmitt to me, her last name being Smith.

My family moved to the Alaska bush when I was 9 years old, almost 20 years ago. I met Eike our first day at church in the Airline Hanger we used to go to before we got the double-wide church bldg. In high school we were inseperable, and we made a funny picture: I'm short, she's tall. We two completely different people and life has taken us down very different paths, but maybe that's why we've been friends so long.

She embodies the spirit of Alaska and this passion for life and the outdoors. People are drawn to her inner beauty and downplayed physical beauty. Once, we played one of those uncomfortable FHE games at Ricks, where you go around a circle and say nice things about each other. It can be really embarrassing making people you don't know well say nice things about you, but I remember one girl saying to Eike: "You are enviously beautiful." I don't think she knows how beautiful is. I think she was deathly embarrassed and she's one of those people who turns completely red - it starts in her cheeks and spreads to her ears. I used to give her so much grief for that.

She's a total guy's girl, she's resourceful and adventurous, loves camping, hiking, paddling, snowboarding, winter camping and she'll commercial fish right along side the boys too. I guess having six older brothers helped. Her mom was born in Germany and worked as a nurse in Alaska, where she met Lyle, Eike's dad, part Alaskan. He really looks like Abe Lincoln! He's an amazing storyteller and Silke is vibrant, so full of life.

We've been through so much together! It would take a book to tell all of our adventures. The one that's retold a bunch has to do with her green '50 (or 60's?) Chevy and me learning how to drive stick. She shifted and I played with the clutch. It went pretty good but ended with a, "TURN HERE!" a ditch, and a "DUCK!" as we tried to hide as people drove by insanely slow to see who was driving. I should add that our town only had a population of 2500, so the car pretty much gave us away.

I get a little emotional just thinking about how she's impacted my life and shaped who I am today! She's really like a sister to me.

This is her awesome fiancee, Reid Ten Kley. His family actually commercial fished along side Eike's family all their lives, but the two never met until three years ago after a bear broke a window in Eike's cabin. He brought over an extra window panel and helped her install it, and as they say, "The rest is history!" He's originally from Oregan, he's a practicing CPA, but I think he also has a business on the side. He's so accomplished so much for being so young but he's completely unpretentious, just like Eike. I think they are perfect for each other and couldn't be happier for them! Congratulations to the happy couple!

If you want to check out their cool wedding website through The Knot, click here.