Ladies and gents, you’ll want to spend some serious time cozying up to this beautiful backyard wedding from Jen Fariello. Because tucked in this gallery are stunning images of a day filled not only with pretty planned by Sheila Motley Events but so much love I can feel it through the screen. With lovely florals from Southern Blooms By Pat’s Floral Designs and a picture perfect cake from Sugarland Bakery, it’s safe to say this wedding is a winner.
From the Bride…Falling in love is hard. But when it happens, it is easy.
That was certainly my experience.
By age 30, I had almost given up on the idea that I would find true love. A loving, trusting, caring, life partner who would challenge and inspire me.
Almost.
No, I didn’t marry my high school sweetheart or one of the many eligible, highly suitable suitors just because the clock was ticking, they looked good on paper, and society told me to do so.
I had all but resided to the notion that I was content and happy being a good, loving daughter, sister(hopefully an aunt one day), god mother to my best friend’s son, and doting mother to my loyal dog, Holly.
Life was good. As good as could be expected if not ever so marginally incomplete.
And then I received a mysterious email. Mysterious might be a bit dramatic.
Let’s simply call it random.
I had been alerted by a women with whom that I had become friends with that she felt compelled to pass my email address along to her son and now feared that perhaps she had over stepped her bounds and done a bad thing.
Thankfully out of embarrassment or boredom, my friend’s son had taken the time and initiative to reach out.
He explained that he was fiercely independent and that his mother had never before inserted herself or meddled in his life and as such he could not help but be intrigued.
From there we began trading slightly flirty emails about life, dogs, and other matters.
Did I mention that I lived in Palm Beach and he lived in New York?
Very quickly our email exchanges blossomed into marathon, all night telephone conversations and I knew that a rare, special someone had appeared on the horizon.
To be blunt, I suggested that he might now have yet another reason to visit Palm Beach.
He replied that he a slightly conflicted relationship with his hometown (who doesn’t) and now had really only one reason to visit Palm Beach and would I like to meet for dinner a Cafe Bolud that Saturday night. To be clear, he asked me to dinner, on a date. Not for drinks, not for coffee, not lunch, not to casually hang out or get together. He was bold and confident if not slightly humble while being refreshingly old fashioned. Let that be a lesson to all you “boys”.
Of course I accepted and from there, it was off to the races! Thank god for JetBlue and even more leg room!
We saw each other every weekend alternating between New York and Palm Beach.
Later that August he asked me to marry him in the wake of a holiday we had taken in Turkey choosing instead to get down on one knee on top of a cupola overlooking Charleston, SC.
Nicholas Sparks couldn’t have penned it better if he tried!
We would be married over a year later on my parents farm outside of Durham, NC. However, my mother had been visualizing if not planning the day since my family moved there from Chapel Hill over twenty years ago.
She would often joke that she was planting in anticipation of the big day when in reality, I was merely 12 and far more interested in horses than boys.
People often talk about their wedding as being one of the happiest and most beautiful days of their life. And thanks to my mother, and my above mentioned best friend who pulled double duty as maid of honor and wedding planner, ours truly was.
The weather was perfect, which I attribute to the bottle of Makers Mark that we buried beneath the alter.
Photography: Jen Fariello Photography | Event Planning: Sheila Motley Events | Floral Design: Southern Blooms | Cake: Sugarland | Catering: BoxCarr Farms | Make Up: Onloktion Makeup Artistry | Lighting: The AV Company | Band: The Adrian Duke Project | Ceremony Music: Arioso Strings | Tent: Skyline Tent Company | Furniture: Beehive Events