Nicholas Sparks began writing The Wedding in 2002. He wanted to write a sequel of sorts to The Notebook and also explore the idea of love being renewed. The Wedding is both written and set in North Carolina, the setting more specifically being the town of New Bern. The reader gets a sense of what New Bern is like in 2003 with the novel's vivid descriptions and inclusion of the famous restaurant, the Chelsea, and pianist John Peterson. Instead of fast-paced, big-city life, filled with modern technology, the pace of the novel is leisurely, much like the pace of the small town where the novel is set.

Sparks embraces what are considered to be traditional values: marriage, family, and spirituality. His values concerning marriage are reflected in this novel. Excerpted on the Official Nicholas Sparks Web Site, Sparks discusses how he expressed his views on marriage...