Chris proposed on December 8, 2018 on our way home from a trip to Maryland, to visit his grandmother. We stopped at a beautiful overlook in West Virginia on the way, he bent down and wrote our initials in the snow, I thought to myself “This is it. Surely he will propose so that his grandmother can see the ring”. To my surprise, we get back in the car with no ring on my finger. Instead, he waited till we were on our way home, and proposed at the very same scenic location.

We both knew this was coming, so to say I had every detail preplanned is a bit of an understatement. We just didn’t have a date picked out. On the remainder of our eight hour trip back to Alabama, we decided on a Fall wedding. Of course we had to plan it around the two bye-weekends for Alabama football! We decided on early November and the rest was history.

We had our ceremony at the church I grew up in. The music for our ceremony was all provided by a violinist, and the songs we chose were some classics mixed with a few new tunes too. We said our vows and sealed our marriage by taking communion together, just the two of us, in front of everyone at our ceremony. After, we were off to our reception.

Our reception location, The Barn at Bennett Flats, held a special place in my heart as it is right across the street from where I spent many sweet memories at my Papa’s (my mom’s dad) house as a child. Since he has passed, having the reception here felt almost like he was still able to be a part of our special day.

The reception began with cocktail hour where our guests enjoyed a beautiful charcuterie board, while the wedding party finished taking pictures around the property. Our signature cocktail of the night was a nod toward all things Alabama and Tuscaloosa with the famous Yellow Hammer cocktail, complete with a personalized version of the Yellow Hammer cups served up on game days. After cocktail hour everyone enjoyed a buffet dinner of pasta from Effina’s and danced the night away, thanks to our amazing DJ Amado!

One last surprise for the night was the icing on the cake for both of us… Big Al from the University of Alabama made his appearance and we ended our night with dancing and pictures before embarking on our honeymoon to Jamaica!

Some tradition mixed with special touches made our perfect day.