Want to get married in Cades Cove? On top of Mount Leconte? Then Dr. Alden Marshall is your man.
The ordained Presbyterian minister, former pastor of the Gatlinburg Presbyterian Church, has conducted weddings in just about every nook and cranny of Sevier County. “I go to cabins, chalets, anywhere in the Great Smoky Mountains,” says Marshall. An enthusiastic outdoorsman who skis cross-country and hikes, the minister chafed at the thought of being tied down to a chapel. “I like being independent and going outdoors. I get to talk about the Lord, too.”
Ironically, Marshall did not particularly enjoy performing weddings in his official duties in the Presbyterian Church. Whether he was pastoring in Gatlinburg, Kingsport, Montreal, or Toronto, he felt that the ceremonies often lost focus. “You had to worry about where everyone stands, how fast they walk down the aisle, and all that,” he remembers. “But I was called to do weddings after I left the church here. I certainly hadn’t planned on it, considering how I’d felt before.”
Since 1996, Marshall has been a minister on the move, happily hiking to Mount Leconte, Ramsey’s Cascades, and numerous other sites in the Smokies. Last year he performed about 400 marriages. Like most of the more traditional chapels in the area, the bulk of his business comes from tourists. “Only three or five of those last year were local couples,” Marshall estimates. “About 80-90% of people find me by my Web site, www.aldenmarshall.com. And you’d be surprised…of the people who tell me how they met, about a third of them met on the Internet.”
Marshall himself is no stranger to unique paths to marriage. He and his wife of 4 1/2 years, Veronika, met “the usual way,” he chuckles. The ‘usual way’ was through a magazine in which Russian women had placed ads; Veronika’s caught his eye. “She wrote that she wanted to meet a man with God in his heart. Plus, she was the best looking out of about 500 women,” he says warmly.
What followed was a year’s worth of correspondence and phone calls. They were married in December 1998 at First Presbyterian Church in Sevierville. What, no outdoor wedding for the traveling minister? “We had talked about Cades Cove, but couldn’t because of the snowy weather,” explains Marshall. He also hints that his wife may have preferred the indoor setting.
The two recently opened a shop in Gatlinburg’s Mountain Mall. From Russia With Love sells authentic Russian ware, including nesting dolls and lacquered boxes. It’s about the only place where you can find Marshall standing in one spot for long. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

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