Stephen and I met at a summer Bible study. At the time, I had recently started going to Peninsula Community Chapel. I ran into a friend’s mom, who told me about the Bible study.
Her son (my friend from high school whom I had not seen in about 4 years) was leading it, so I checked it out. To this day, Stephen remembers what I was wearing the first time he saw me walk into the room. Needless to say, the rest is history!
Describe the proposal.
The proposal was literally a dream come true. It was SO well thought out and planned. At the beginning of January 2010, I went to a Christian conference called Passion for several days. The day after I returned, Stephen and I went geocaching. Geocaching is a modern day “treasure” hunt that uses a GPS or compass to find little containers with different items inside of them called “caches.” These caches are hidden by a geocacher, who posts the coordinates of the cache on a website for other people to use in finding the cache.
Stephen, with the help of family and friends, set up a fake geocache for us to find together that eventually led to the spot where he proposed. Along the way, the family members were strategically hidden with cameras to document the whole thing. It is so cool to look back and see the proposal unfolding.
I wanted our stationary to look handmade, so we handmade them. Imagine that! I wanted our wedding theme to scream DIY. I love details and I love crafting, so it was perfect.
I decided to go with artificial flowers all the way. Our flowers were mostly green and white with subtle accents of an eggplant purple. We also used twine to wrap around the base of the bridesmaids bouquets, as well as the boutonnières.
Being that our wedding theme was rustic, I felt like rose petals were unsuitable for the flower girl to toss. Instead I found some artificial white daises about the size of a quarter. I popped the bud off of the stem and had my flower girl (AND ring bearer! He wanted in on the action too!) toss those instead.
As it turned out, my grandmother’s best friend used to be a florist. She volunteered to help us pick out the flowers and arrange them exactly how I wanted.
What a blessing it was too; we saved so much money. A perk about working with artificial flowers is that they can be reused. I have taken the bouquets apart and made arrangements for our home, as well as a wreath.
I had always dreamed of having a big entourage of friends with me the very first time I put on a beautiful white gown. Once the moment presented itself I realized that this could be a pretty special moment for just me and my mom. I think I tried on a million dresses.
What I liked in my head looked completely different on my body. I became so frustrated the consultant started pulling dresses for me without my approval. The first dress she pulled out when I gave up was the very dress I walked down the aisle in seven months later!
It is so hard to pick one favorite detail from the wedding because my hands were in every detail of design for our wedding. I thoroughly enjoyed the DESIGNING aspect of our wedding. There were countless hours put into making the details come together.
I loved the fellowship shared with close friends and family members as we handmade each Save the Date card, invitation and all of its individual pieces and the thank you notes. That was priceless.
The first dance is a pretty big deal to Stephen’s family. I always thought that my first dance married would be swaying back and forth to a song we both agreed upon, but secretly hoping for something more. To my surprise, Stephen agreed to take dance lessons.
It was incredibly rewarding and fun all at the same time. It was really neat because the dance started off kind of slow and boring-looking, like the swaying most couples do, but then our instructors sped it up and taught us some really sweet moves. We were so nervous before hand because we had never practiced with me in my dress.
When the time came to perform, all of our worries disappeared. We were able to talk, laugh and still dance. Everyone in the room disappeared. It was such a beautiful and priceless moment that I will never ever forget.
What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day?
I have so many favorites. My top two would have to be 1) when the church doors opened and I saw Stephen standing at the end of the aisle waiting for me. Not to sound corny, but it was EVERYTHING I ever imagined it to be. and 2) the look on Stephen’s face when he laid eyes on the corvette I surprised him with to drive off in. I didn’t think I could ever pull off such a big surprise. It worked though!
Photography: Rebekah J. Murray
Church: King’s Way Church, Williamsburg, VA
Reception: Great Wolf Lodge, Williamsburg, VA
Bridal Attair: Maggie Sattero
Cake: Ukrops, Williamsburg, VA
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