From the beautiful bride ... Our story begins in the sleepy southern town of Mobile, Alabama. Here, in this scenic city by the bay, Davis and I were both born and raised. We both grew up in loving homes with supportive parents. We each were blessed with two sisters as siblings who we shared a home with and grew to love. We both had a love of sports and even played ball at the same ballpark. Although we had so much in common and lived in the same place our entire lives, we never met in Mobile. It took a chance encounter on a Spring weekend in Auburn, Alabama to bring us together. It turned out that Davis and I shared a few mutual friends, and we both had unknowingly made plans to visit these friends at the same time. We met, spent the weekend getting to know one another, and each went back to our daily lives. Little did we know that that weekend would change our lives forever.

From the moment Davis and I met, there was an immediate attraction. Davis began asking me out after that weekend, but I was hesitant to say yes because we lived in two different states at the time. Fortunately, Davis was persistent and kept trying until he moved back to Mobile a year later when I finally said yes.

Davis and I began to hang out all the time. Before long, we were dating, and we had become inseparable. I soon realized that immediate attraction we had was no coincidence. I was meant to be his bride. After two years of dating, he asked me to marry him.

On the day of our engagement, we met up and ate breakfast together. After breakfast he took off without telling me goodbye, and he left a letter on my car. Each letter had the sweetest words I've ever read, along with instructions and a polaroid picture of a similar letter in a location that he knew I would recognize. I was to follow the trail of polaroid pictures, each of a letter setup in a location that was special to our relationship, and follow the instructions inside. The final letter contained a picture of an island in the middle of a lake on his family's property. There he was waiting for me, while both of our families watched in anticipation, as I said yes, and we all celebrated together.

Naturally, when it came time to choose a wedding venue, his family's property by the lake where we were engaged was our choice. After looking at both of our family's schedules, we set a date and began plans to build our wedding chapel. Our wedding took place on January 5, 2013, so we chose a winter based theme for the wedding. We each had hundreds of friends and family members that we wanted to be there on our big day, so constructing a venue to hold everyone and decorating it to be a winter wonderland became our next focus.

Having a winter wonderland wedding evolved because of the time of year, and our wedding colors. My favorite color is light blue, and I love whites and creams. We hired a family friend of ours as our wedding decorator, and I coordinated with her on a daily basis to design the decor of the wedding. Together, we were able to come up with the design for the wedding of my dreams.

There are so many special things that we incorporated in our decorations and ceremony. The Mobile Youth Symphony Orchestra provided the music for the ceremony. Davis and I were married under an arbor his dad built for us. We will be putting it in our backyard to keep forever. Our aisle runner had our names hand painted on it with our wedding date, and we hope that one day our children will use it in their weddings and add their names to it as well. In order to keep it clean, only the wedding party actually walked down the aisle during the ceremony. During our ceremony after we read our vows and exchanged rings, we knelt on a custom built kneeling bench that was constructed out of an antique table, where our sisters, maid of honor, and best men prayed over us. After the prayer we gave both of our mothers a white rose in thanks of all the love and support they have given us to get us to where we are today.

The entire wedding ceremony was so memorable, but I can speak for both of us when I say that our most vivid memory from the wedding day was when the doors opened and I walked down the aisle. Since it was such a long aisle, it took awhile for both of us to be able to actually see one another, but once we were able to see each others' faces, our hearts were filled with pure joy. It is a moment that neither one of us will ever forget!

Our wedding favors consisted of hand made ceramic hearts with our names, wedding date, and bible verses read in our wedding engraved in them, shawls for the women in light blue and ivory, huggers, cookies, and customized CD's with a special thank you note from us and the songs from our ceremony, our first dances, and some of our favorite love songs.

Photography: Rae Leytham Photography | Cinematography: Diva Productions | Flowers: Zimlich the Florist | Event Planning + Design: Cynthia Zipperly | Event Coordinator: Cindy Zebryk | Shoes: Jimmy Choo | Dress Designer: Allure Couture | Bridesmaid Dress Designer: Bari Jay | Men's Fashion: Francia's Formal Affair | Make-up Artist: J. Edward Beauty | Photo Booth: Facetime Photobooth