No doubt about it – you are going to love this wedding. Love it SO much, in fact, that you’ll spend your entire Monday swooning over the glorious images captured by Concept Photography, holding back tears as these two sweethearts say “I do” under a breathtaking canopy of trees and drooling over that stunning gown and fabulous head piece. Yep… you are going to love it THAT MUCH. And what you’ll adore even more? The uber-gorgeous couple behind the whole shebang. They are Awesome with a capital A and their glowy faces and fab (+ funny) description just made a mad dash into the SMP Hall of Fame. Click here for SOO much more.
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From the Bride… Ryan and I met 10 years ago at a summer job. He asked me out, and we went on a few dates, then BAM, seven years later Ryan and I were officially a couple. Ryan is smooth like that. He is very caring, even for people he doesn’t know. He spent 6 years of his life in the military fighting for our country, and now he is a firefighter. He has a huge heart. I also love his tattoos and his gorgeous blue eyes (I am very jealous of them).
The proposal story: we go to my parent’s vacation home in North Carolina every year the week before Christmas, and every year there is always some sort of disaster — I’m not sure why we continue to go at that time of year. This year it took us three extra hours to drive the icy roads — it was a warm seven degrees with two feet of snow, and all the water pipes were frozen when we got there. After two hours of digging up snow to find the water main, crawling under the house at 11 p.m. to make sure there wasn’t a leak, me tripping and falling face first in the snow while sliding down the hill and hysterically crying, we decided to give up, bathe ourselves with wet ones and drink several bottles of wine to drown our sorrows. We had one bottle down and Ryan got up and started putting on deodorant and brushing his teeth (with a water bottle) and sweating profusely. Obviously I found this strange because it was so cold, so I asked what he was doing in my normal sarcastic form. That’s when he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him, then I started sweating and threw up because I was so excited — it was a magical night!
I have had most of my wedding planned since I was 4, when I put my first veil on and made my neighbor marry me in the very elegant setting of my parent’s garage. After I got my dress, everything fell into place. My favorite colors are gold, silver, and copper so that part was easy. I love all things shiny and sparkly. I always wanted to get married under huge trees in the fall. I wanted everything to be really romantic with candle light. My top priority however was, that everyone had fun — and since the bar ran out of alcohol three times in five hours, I am going to say everyone had a good time. We were originally going to have the wedding at my uncle’s restaurant, but the guest list kept getting bigger and bigger, and I was getting really worried about space. I was getting a facial and the lady was telling me about the Tampa Firefighter Museum. My husband is a firefighter, and if you have ever had a conversation with a firefighter, you know they REALLY love their job! So I called six months before my wedding and happened to be the only date they had open in the fall — it was fate.
Instead of a guest book, my cousin made me little books to put on each table with questions like “ What should we name our kids?” “Where should we go on our 5th anniversary?” and “Favorite recipe?” Guest got to write personal messages to us. It was a lot of fun for us to read after the wedding — especially the messages you get after giving people a few cocktails. The most memorable moment for me was my sister’s maid of honor speech. It was without a doubt the funniest speech I have ever heard at a wedding. She mentally tortured me for 10 months about how she was going to humiliate me — she did, but it was funny and she rocked it.
Wedding Photography: Concept Photography / Wedding Venue: A Private Estate in Tampa, Florida / Wedding Planning: Ashly Olivier of Olivier Events / Floral Design: Heather Taylor of Taylormade Wedding & Event Flowers / Catering: Bailey’s Catering & Restaurant / Wedding Cake + Cupcakes: Chocolate Pi / Linens: Panache / Ceremony Music: Alafia String Quartet / DJ: Howard Entertainment / Transportation: VIP Valet & Limousine Inc. / Wedding Dress: Lazaro / Hair + Makeup: Tribeca Salon / Bridesmaid Dresses: J.Crew + Saks Fifth Avenue + Cache + Dillard’s + Lord & Taylor