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While they may have gotten engaged far away from their families (be sure to read about their sweet Parisian proposal!), Katie and John chose to celebrate their marriage with an intimate wedding at King Family Vineyards that was focused on including all their family members. Even their young nieces, nephews, and cousins felt right at home, thanks to the family-style dinner and kids table! The decorate-your-own pumpkin activity at the kids table does looks like a blast, but personally, my favorite thing about Katie and John’s wedding is their beautiful blue and peach color palette. Katie wanted a spring wedding and John wanted a fall wedding, so they compromised by using bright colors in early fall! I love that!

Big SW hugs to Jillian Michelle for sharing this pretty day with us!

Tell us all about the proposal! For an anniversary/Christmas gift, John took me on a surprise trip to Paris. I love art, so I was thrilled to nerd out at the Paris art museums. We walked several miles in the Louvre, enjoyed the Impressionists at the Musee d’Orsay, visited many cathedrals, and ate far too much delicious French food. On the last day of our trip, we went to the Palace of Versailles. While walking in the stunning gardens and taking pictures of everything from fountains to landscape art to swans swimming in the ponds, John got down on one knee and proposed! I was so surprised (I hadn’t even showered that day!), but I also cannot imagine a more perfect engagement.

We did not do a first look because I wanted to stick to tradition and my favorite part of a wedding is seeing the groom’s expression when he sees the bride walk down the aisle. John was actually in favor of doing a first look initially (more time for pictures before sunset), but he told me later that he was glad we didn’t because my walk down the aisle was his favorite part of the wedding.

What made you choose your ceremony and reception venues? Did they have any special significance to you? We think King Family is one of the most beautiful vineyards in Charlottesville, and we enjoy the wine, too. Since most of our guests were from out of town, we wanted to have the ceremony and reception at the same place. Our minister–a close family friend I have known my entire life–was gracious enough to come from Florida to perform the ceremony, which made it very special to us.

The flowers were in a bright fall palette of orange, peach, cream, and yellows. I had wanted a spring wedding and John wanted a fall wedding, so we compromised by using bright colors in early fall!

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? John is a pharmacist and I am a medical resident, which makes our work schedules very difficult to coordinate. Making and attending appointments during regular business hours was a nightmare. Our wedding planner was absolutely incredible at making appointments and working with our hectic schedules. She really helped keep our stress levels down, and she made our wedding day surpass our expectations.

What Southern details or traditions did you include in your celebration? What was Southern about your wedding? Our food was all Southern cuisine. We served biscuits with butter and honey, shrimp and grits, collard greens, and succotash. We also had a lemonade stand and sweet, flavor-infused tea as a pre-ceremony refreshment. Our meal was served family-style, which made it feel more like a typical family dinner.

Our favorite detail of the wedding was: We wanted our wedding to be small, intimate, and inclusive of our young nieces, nephews, and cousins. One of our favorite details was the kids’ table, where our youngest guests could color and decorate pumpkins. It was a big hit for them and kept their parents entertained, too.

We had a three-tiered cake with cream-colored frosting that progressed to a peach color. It had floral and pearl accents. It was important to us that the cake tasted great too, so our flavors were pumpkin and red velvet.

How did y’all meet? Tell us your love story. We met when I was in medical school and John was working as a pharmacist in a small town in Florida. The average age of that small town is about 65, so we ultimately met online.
When did y’all get married? October 16, 2015
How many friends, family members, and loved ones attended your wedding? 95
Tell us about finding your wedding dress. I had one weekend set aside to find a dress, so it was a mad dash to find the one. No pressure! Starting out, I pictured myself in a lace dress with straps. The dress that I liked most was lace, but it was strapless, so I ended up adding lace straps to it, which made it perfect for me.
Tell us about some of the songs you used throughout your wedding and why you chose them. Our first dance was to “Unforgettable” by Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole. We think it is a beautiful harmony with lovely lyrics.
Did you have something borrowed, blue, old, and new? If so, do tell! My something borrowed was a lace handkerchief from my grandmother, which also made an appearance at my sister’s wedding. My blue was my navy blue lace shoes, and my new was my dress and jewelry.
How did you plan for your marriage while planning your wedding? We did premarital counseling with our pastor, which helped us keep things in perspective. It was one of our favorite pre-wedding activities.
If you are comfortable responding, what range did your wedding budget fall into? $25,000-$50,000
What was one way you saved money or cut costs at your wedding? We served wine, beer, and cider only. Not having a full bar cut down our costs and also showcased the wonderful wine at King Family Vineyards, as well as local beer and cider.
What’s next for you as a couple? What memories are you looking forward to making together? Now that the wedding is over, we are looking forward to growing together as a married couple. We are looking forward to our honeymoon, which we delayed for a few months, and we are about to expand our family to include an adopted cat.

Photographer: Jillian Michelle / Event Planning and Design: Tart Event Co. / Venue: King Family Vineyards / Florist: Southern Blooms / Wedding Cake: Favorite Cakes / Caterer: The Catering Outfit / Rentals: Festive Fare / Ceremony and Cocktail Hour Musician: Michael Geddes / Paper Products: Rock Paper Scissors / Bridal Gown and Accessories: Bella Rosa Bridal / Hair Stylist: Moxie Hair Lounge / Makeup Artist: Gohar Ayvazyan Beaver / Bridesmaids’ Dresses: Alfred Angelo / Menswear: Men’s Wearhouse / Specialty Rentals: Paisley and Jade / Calligraphy: Type Delight / DJ: Shaner Sound

Paisley and Jade is a delightful member of our Blue Ribbon Vendor Directory!

marissa Written with love by Marissa
4 Comments
  1. avatar Meredith Sledge reply

    BEAUTIFUL! Jill, you’re the besttttt!

  2. avatar Jill Powers reply

    Ahh!! Thank you so much for featuring this beautiful wedding!! :)

  3. avatar Lauren Carnes Photography reply

    We visited King Family Vineyards when we vacationed in Virginia and I fell in love! This is gorgeous!

  4. avatar Paisley & Jade reply

    We loved being part of this gorgeous wedding at King Family Vineyard! John and Katie seem like such a sweet couple and we’re thrilled that you chose to feature their big day! Our blue chairs in that reception venue? Swoon. We just love it all. So much pretty!

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I can’t think of a lovelier way to start the week than Kelly and Chris’ bright, joyful Charlottesville wedding! Kelly is a talented food blogger and one of our Southern Bride Bloggers, so we already knew she had an eye for fun details and a love of all things colorful. That cheery aesthetic combined with the sweet touches she had always dreamed of including in her wedding (like walking down the aisle to Pachelbel’s “Canon in D”), nods to her and Chris’ love story (they got engaged in Charlottesville and hope to call it home someday, too!), and plenty of Southern goodness (ahem, ham biscuits), made for quite the celebration, as well as the sweetest setting for Kelly and Chris to become husband and wife!

Thank you so much to our dear friend Jodi Miller for sharing this fun day with us!

We had so many beautiful details, but I absolutely LOVED our wedding paper! The invitations were really important to us, as this is the first glimpse guests have into your big day, so I wanted to make them extra special. So many details went into these beauties, including custom calligraphy, hand-painted watercolor, gold foil, and pretty ribbon, all tied together in peony colored envelopes with vintage stamps. I’m still getting compliments on our invites to this day!

Tell us about finding your wedding dress. After visiting about 10 different dress boutiques and still feeling disappointed, I randomly came across the designer Augusta Jones at a trunk show and fell in love! The detail of the lace she used was just exquisite and so romantic, I knew I had to have one of her dresses. Well, when I went to try on a few, I was completely torn between two–I loved the top part of one dress that had this gorgeous neckline with lace falling across the shoulders, but the bottom of another dress. When I shared my dilemma with the stylist, she informed me that Augusta Jones loves doing custom orders, so they could combine both and give me my dream dress! I cried right there on the spot and knew I had found the “one!”

Describe your wedding flowers. Oh, our flowers! I knew from the beginning of the wedding planning process that our florals would be one of the most important details that we wanted to showcase, and Southern Blooms certainly delivered! I chose an array of peaches, pinks, and golds with lots of lush greenery, and I literally cried when I saw my bouquet for the first time. It was full of garden roses, beautiful peonies, and ranunculus, with eucalyptus leaves and vines cascading down, all wrapped up in long, gorgeous ribbon. Our farm head table had this amazing floral runner with tons of candles on it, and the guests’ tables had tall candelabras with overflowing flowers on the top. It was simply magical!

At first, we were against doing a first look, as Chris was adamant about not wanting to see me until I walked down the aisle. After talking it over and knowing we wanted to make the most of our amazing photographers, as well as enjoy cocktail hour with our guests, we decided on doing a first look, which ended up being a huge blessing. We were able to get so many gorgeous photos outside at the vineyard before it poured on us!

What made you choose your ceremony and reception venues? Did they have any special significance to you? Charlottesville, Virginia is such a special place to us, as we are huge UVA fans. Some of our first dates were spent drinking wine at the vineyards, and it was also where Chris proposed, so it was pretty much a given that we were going to plan our wedding there! Veritas Winery was the first place I looked, and not only did it have some of the most gorgeous mountain views, but the ballroom absolutely blew me away. It reminded me of a tented reception, which is something I had always envisioned for our wedding, with its floor-to-ceiling white drapery. Needless to say, we signed a contract that day and I never even looked anywhere else!

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome while planning your wedding? The biggest challenge actually didn’t come until the day-of! We had gorgeous weather all day, but we knew Tropical Storm Bill was expected to hit us right around 6 P.M. when the wedding was about to start. Sadly, we had to make the call that afternoon to have the ceremony inside so that the florist could set everything up for the ceremony, even though the weather was absolutely beautiful at the time. Luckily, we had amazingly talented people who were able to make the ballroom look so breathtaking, and we were still able to overlook the mountains, as we were married right in front of floor-to-ceiling windows.

Ever since I was a little girl, I have always envisioned a beautifully classic wedding ceremony that included Pachelbel’s “Canon in D.” The bridesmaids all walked down to an instrumental version of “A Thousand Years,” but when Pachelbel’s Canon started, it was the first time that day that I was instantly brought to tears. My dad and I waited a few seconds to walk so that I could take in that special moment and reflect on what was to come. It truly made our wedding complete and is something I’ll always remember!

What Southern details or traditions did you include in your celebration? What was Southern about your wedding? To maintain that Southern feel, we had his and hers signature cocktails named “The Belle” and “The Beau,” the guys all wore pink bow ties, and we served delicious Virginia baked ham biscuits with apple glaze during cocktail hour, which really made us feel at home! We also had a drink station set up for guests with sweet tea, lemonade, and water with fresh cucumber and mint, and our welcome bags had local Southern fare that our guests absolutely loved!

What was one way you saved money or cut costs at your wedding? Charlottesville has some amazing local vendors, so we were able to cut transportation and delivery costs by using them. My talented cousin designed some of our beautiful signage and our florist re-purposed the ceremony flowers and bridesmaid bouquets at the reception, which saved us lots of money!

What advice do you have for folks currently planning a wedding? Your wedding is only ONE day, but your marriage lasts forever! I had to continually remind myself of this throughout the planning process, as I’m super detail-oriented and would start to obsess over how the napkins were to be folded, if I should have ribbon or greenery at each place setting, where the cakes should be displayed, etc. At the end of the day, no one noticed the extra ribbon, nor did they care how the napkins were folded, but everyone had the most amazing time and we have so many memories that we will carry with us forever!

We chose to have three mini cakes that varied in size and were adorned with gorgeous greenery and flowers. They were displayed on a gold sequined overlay, which really made them stand out. We also have a close friend who owns her own donut truck, and she surprised us with over 200 cinnamon apple donuts for our guests!

How did y’all meet? Tell us your love story. Chris and I were introduced at a Rascal Flatts concert in 2010. We literally danced the night away and I was instantly smitten! Ironically, I found out that not only did we have many friends in common, but he had grown up in the same town as I did my entire life, and we were even born in the same hospital only 10 days apart! I knew we were meant to be.
Tell us all about the proposal! Chris and I absolutely love Virginia wine country and Charlottesville is one place that is near and dear to our hearts. Knowing this, Chris planned a special trip to Trump Winery on Thanksgiving weekend, which wasn’t out of the ordinary, since we go so often and he knew our family would all be in town. When we got there, we found a cozy little spot outside by a fire that sat us all, and Chris wanted to get a picture of us in front of the beautiful scenery. When we posed for the picture, which unbeknownst to me was actually a video, he got down on one knee in front of our friends and family and asked me to marry him! It was the perfect proposal and a moment I’ll never forget!
When did y’all get married? June 20, 2015
How many friends, family members, and loved ones attended your wedding? 150
Did you write your own vows? If so, what was your favorite phrase, verse or line? We were both so nervous that we decided not to write our own vows, but we did write personal letters to each other to read before the ceremony, which was very special to us.
What readings, if any, did you have at your ceremony? My absolute favorite verses have always been 1 Corinthians 13:4-12 and Ephesians 4:2 which, to me, sum up the beauty of true, unconditional love. I think it’s so important for our marriage that our love continues to grow through our shared love for God.
How did you plan for your marriage while planning your wedding? Praying with each other daily is really important in our relationship, and has only brought us closer together as a couple. We also have some amazing people in our lives who model what a true happy and healthy marriage should look like, so we hope to follow in their footsteps!
If you are comfortable responding, what range did your wedding budget fall into? $50,000-$75,000
What is the one detail or vendor that you were so happy to have as a part of your wedding? Oh goodness, ALL of our vendors were absolutely amazing and I loved everyone that we worked with, but we were truly blessed to have some amazing planners! Ainsley and Wendy of Fete Weddings became such close friends to us throughout the entire process and truly went above and beyond all that was asked of them. For instance, one of our wedding guests had a strap that broke on her dress, and without hesitation, Ainsley whipped out a sewing kit from her apron and fixed it right there on the spot! I couldn’t have asked for better girls to work with and I knew we were in such great hands!
What’s next for you as a couple? What memories are you looking forward to making together? We are currently living in our first home together in Northern Virginia with our sweet pup Oliver, but our dream is to build a home in Charlottesville for our future family. We’re also looking forward to welcoming our second niece into the family and spending lots of time with them!
Is there anything else you’d like to share about your wedding? One thing that was really special for me was that my brother, who is in the U.S. Marine Corps, was able to fly all the way from Japan, where he is currently stationed, to be at our wedding. I only get to see him maybe once year if I’m lucky, so having him be apart of everything was truly a blessing!

Photographer: Jodi Miller Photography / Planner: Fete Weddings / Venue and Caterer: Veritas Vineyards & Winery / Florist: Southern Blooms / Cake Baker: Sweethaus / Rentals: BB&J Linens / DJ: Roger Cruz of Astro Entertainment / Signage: The Paper Walrus / Paper Products and Calligraphy: Goodheart Design / Bride’s Gown: Custom by Augusta Jones / Bride’s Shoes and Jewelry: Kate Spade / Hair and Makeup: Ave 42 / Bridesmaids’ Dresses: “Morgan”, “Sarah” and “Rhea” in Blush, Honeysuckle and Peach Fuzz by Donna Morgan / Menswear: Jean Yves / Laser-Cut Wooden Tags: Laura Hooper Calligraphy

Jodi Miller Photography is a delightful member of our Blue Ribbon Vendor Directory, and Donna Morgan is a delightful SW sponsor!

lisa Written with love by Lisa
3 Comments
  1. avatar Southern Blooms by Pat’s Floral Designs reply

    We are so excited to see Kelly and Chris featured today! Kelly was a dream bride – great ideas, a love of color, and so much enthusiasm for life. We are honored to have been included in the spectacular team that was assembled for this gorgeous day!

  2. avatar Announcing the Pantone Design Competition Winners – Blog for Wedding Industry Professionals reply

    […] Photo Credits: Balloons via Design Love Fest/Flowers: Designed by Gypsy Floral via Moncheribridals.com/Confetti: Photographer Emily Crall via Le Magnifique Blog/Bride and Flowers: Photographer Kelsea Holder via Wedding Chicks/Car: Photographer Steven Goovaerts via Glamorous Housewife/Cake: Designed by the Art of Baking via Modern Wedding/Invites: Photographer Jodi & Kurt Photography via Southern Weddings […]

  3. avatar 50 Pink Wedding Ideas | All Shades of Pink Wedding reply

    […] Pink Watercolor invitation by Goodheart Design, photo by Jodi Miller Photography via Southern Weddings […]

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I can’t think of a sweeter way to spend this Tuesday morning than getting lost in Stephanie and Glenn’s wedding! These two met and became best friends during late nights of studying in medical school, and it wasn’t long before their feelings grew into something more. Once Glenn surprised the notoriously hard-to-surprise Stephanie with a proposal, they began planning their Virginia wine country wedding with so much intention and purpose. Everything from their venue to their table names to the flowers was meaningful, and thanks to Stephanie’s lovely taste and Glenn’s secret creative side, it was beautiful, too!

Thank you so much to our Blue Ribbon Vendor Rachel May for sharing this special day with us!

What Southern details or traditions did you include in your celebration? What was Southern about your wedding? Monograms, monograms, monograms! We printed our custom monogram on our invitations, programs, menu, place cards, guest book, and more. We even crafted our monogram out of 300+ wine corks and placed it over the mantle in the tasting room during cocktail hour. We bought our bridesmaids and groomsmen monogrammed items as gifts (big oxfords for the girls to get ready in and tervis tumblers, and cuff links for the boys). My gift to Glenn on our wedding day was a monogrammed tie clip with our wedding date on the back. He got me a gold monogrammed necklace with my new initials that I wore at our reception. I also wore monogrammed gold Jack Rogers sandals with my new initials for the reception. Also, PEARLS! A Southern girl is never without her pearls. I gave my bridesmaids pearl earrings and necklaces and wore a beautiful family heirloom pearl ring for the ceremony.

I had always wanted to go dress shopping with just my mom and my best friend since childhood, Megan. A few weeks after the proposal, they drove down to Richmond to meet me on my day off and we went to Bella Rosa Bridal. I had seen a picture of a dress on Bella Rosa’s blog that was brand new to the store and asked to try it on. The first six or seven dresses that I tried on were all beautiful, but I knew I couldn’t make a decision until I tried the blog dress on. When I tried it on, I felt so beautiful. I absolutely loved the raw silk skirt and the illusion neckline, but it was so different from what I had pictured myself in–there was no lace! I felt torn, but when I looked at my mom and Megan’s faces, I knew that this was the one. The wonderful ladies at Bella Rosa were able to adapt the dress when I suggested we cut out the majority of the back and make it into a big wide “V” back. I also added a large bow with long, streaming ties. I have always wanted a bow on my wedding dress and knew it wouldn’t be complete without it! On the day of my wedding, I couldn’t wait to get into my beautiful dress. It was so perfectly me, and I had so much fun dancing the night away in my big skirt with the bow floating behind me!

Describe your wedding flowers. My mom is an incredible gardener and our lawn is always overflowing with beautiful blooms. She taught me a love of flowers from an early age, so choosing which flowers we wanted at the wedding was easy! I chose a loose, hand-tied bouquet in shades of ivory, soft peach, and blush with ranunculus, garden roses, parrot tulips, coral charm peonies, clematis, viburnum, and sweet peas, with lots of dusty miller and greenery. The sweet peas were especially important to me because my parents have been calling me “Sweet Pea” as a nickname since birth. I also wanted clematis because my mother has an incredible trellis of clematis at our family home, and I’ve always thought they were so simple and beautiful. All of the flowers for the bouquets were tied with ribbon streamers in champagne, ivory, and blush.

What I didn’t anticipate was how nervous I’d be on the wedding day! While getting my hair and makeup done, I was getting anxious and shaky about reading the vows we had written in front of so many people, and I really just wanted to see Glenn! The moment that he turned around and saw me in my dress for the first time is a moment I’ll never forget. Just holding his hand and giving him a kiss immediately calmed me and helped me relax and get excited for the rest of the evening. After that, it was smooth sailing!

What made you choose your ceremony and reception venues? Did they have any special significance to you? I first visited Veritas Winery when I was in undergrad at UVA. I fell in love with it instantly: the location at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the gorgeous draped ballroom, and (of course!) the amazing wine. After my first visit there, I jokingly told my parents that I was going to get married there someday! Over the years, my family has spent many afternoons wine tasting at Veritas. When Glenn and I first became friends, I took him on a trip to Charlottesville to visit wineries, and Veritas was our first stop. I remember thinking then how special Veritas will always be to me. After we got engaged and decided the wedding would be in Virginia wine country, we browsed a few different places, but Veritas was always in the back of my mind. When Glenn’s sister came to visit just two weeks after our engagement, we took her to Veritas and showed her the ballroom. She turned to us and said, “Why is there even any question? This place is just perfect for the two of you!” That really sealed the deal!

Did you write your own vows? If so, what was your favorite phrase, verse or line? Yes, we did, and it was tougher than I had expected! We didn’t consult each other on them at all, but we did compare word counts to make sure they were a similar length. When we sent them to our officiant, she replied, “Oh, you two are just too perfect for each other, just you wait!” Glenn and I know each other so well that we both included nearly the exact same things: we joked about teaching our kids to root for both the UVA Hoos and the UCLA Bruins, we talked about supporting each other through all of the adventures of life, and we promised to listen to each other and never take a simple “I love you” for granted, amongst many others. They were so perfect.

Glenn and I both envisioned a non-traditional, outdoor wedding ceremony. My dad has always been a music lover and we have spent countless hours in the car together jamming to our favorites: The Beatles and Queen. Glenn has always been an oldies fan and is a die-hard motown fan, so our wedding quickly developed a retro music vibe. My dad and I walked down the aisle to my favorite childhood song, “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles. When the ceremony was over, Glenn and I recessed to “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” by Stevie Wonder, one of our all-time favorites!

Our favorite detail of the wedding was: Too hard to choose! Maybe taking sunset photos with our vintage Packard car while our guests were at cocktail hour–it was so dreamy and romantic and private, and we loved it! Our other favorite detail was all of the table names and the guest book that Glenn drew by hand. We are big foodies, so we named our tables after our favorite restaurants in different cities across the U.S., and Glenn drew each restaurant’s logo by hand. He also made a huge canvas guest book with the states of Virginia and California on it, featuring pictures of our favorite places in each state. The guest book and our table numbers are now in our new home and we will cherish them forever!

Describe your dessert. Neither Glenn nor I are huge cake fans, and we wanted to find a way to bring some of Richmond, our home for the past four years, to Charlottesville. We decided to bring desserts from two of our favorite local Richmond vendors to Veritas. We served pies (apple, mixed berry streusel, coconut cream, and banoffee) from Proper Pie at the reception and gave out twelve varieties of the most delicious doughnuts you’ve ever had from Sugar Shack Donuts (a place we visit almost once a week!) as favors. We served them with to-go cups of coffee and waters for guests to take on the buses home, and they were a huge hit! We did want a small cake to do the ceremonial cutting with, so we got a delicious raspberry chai cake with buttercream icing.

Our first dance was to another oldie-but-goodie cover that we discovered on one of our very first dates: “Baby I’m Yours” by the Arctic Monkeys. We had an incredible reception band, The Dickens, and they played such an awesome variety–everything from motown to hip hop. The dance floor was packed until the lights went up at the end of the night and we sang UVA’s “Good Ole Song” and UCLA’s fight song a capella.

Big hugs to East West Productions for sharing this video from Stephanie + Glenn’s day!

How did y’all meet? Tell us your love story. Glenn and I met during our first year of medical school at the Medical College of Virginia. He was a quiet guy from Los Angeles and immediately befriended many of our other classmates from California, but as the first few weeks went by, our friend groups started meshing and hanging out quite a bit. Glenn and I started studying in the same study hall at school and spent countless late nights quizzing each other and giving each other pep talks. We became best friends first, and by the end of our first year of medical school, we were hanging out all the time, doing silly things like grocery shopping and watching movies together. It wasn’t until I brought Glenn to my parents’ house during the summer after first year that I realized how close we were. In fact, my mother took me aside and said, “You’re totally going to wind up with Glenn. I don’t know why you two aren’t together already. You’re just perfect for each other!” After that, I started realizing how much my feelings for Glenn were growing, but I had no idea how he felt. Finally, in January of our second year of medical school, Glenn leaned down and kissed me while we were dancing at our school’s annual Winter Ball. We’ve been inseparable ever since! We knew there would be a lot of obstacles in the way, especially the fact that we would have to go through a special match process called “couples matching” in the residency match at the end of medical school. Our entire fourth year of medical school was filled with anxiety as we waited until the end of March to find out if we would be starting our married life together or across the country from each other. When match day came, we received the best possible news: we would be staying in Virginia to complete our respective residencies! Two weeks later, we walked down the aisle to say “I do” on the most perfect day ever.
Tell us all about the proposal! I am always the one who likes to plan and ask questions, so I am generally very difficult to surprise. In his infinite genius, Glenn decided to let me do all the work and then hijack my plans. I had planned to do an early birthday dinner with all of my best girlfriends just a few days before my birthday, which he knew would be the perfect opportunity to have my closest friends and family all together. After dinner with my girlfriends, they surprised me by taking me to a wine bar instead of someone’s house for wine and dessert. When we got to the wine bar, we “learned” that it was closed because of a fire (my friends had already known this and used it as a diversion!). They insisted that we head to the very fancy French restaurant across the street instead. I balked, stating that it was too expensive, but they insisted. As we were walking into the restaurant, I joked to my friends, “Hey guys, wouldn’t it be so funny if Glenn showed up here with flowers and proposed?” Little did I know! The maitre d’ told us he only had one table in the private room at the very back. As I turned the corner, leading the pack of my friends, I saw my parents out of the corner of my eye and then my sweet Glenn. He got down on one knee in a room full of my closest friends and family and told me he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. In between tears and sniffles, I squeaked out an “of course” and we celebrated with champagne and dessert at a table lined with dozens of roses. It was absolutely perfect.
When did y’all get married? April 4, 2015
How many friends, family members, and loved ones attended your wedding? About 100
Did you have something borrowed, blue, old, and new? If so, do tell! My something old was the most special. I’ve been dreaming of wearing my mother’s veil since I was a little girl. She made it by hand for her wedding 35 years ago and it’s so beautiful. We have pictures of me wearing her veil for dress-up when I was six years old, and when I went to try on dresses, I always had that veil in my mind. I couldn’t imagine walking down the aisle in anything else! My something blue was my maiden monogram label in the bodice of my dress. My something borrowed was a hankie from the 1920s that my Grammy gave to me. My something new was a vintage pearl ring and earrings that my mother gave me on the day of the wedding.
What was one way you saved money or cut costs at your wedding? We did a lot of DIY projects! Glenn is so artistic…I had no idea before we started wedding planning! He designed all of our table names, our guest book, and our wine cork monogram. We also had a lot of help from family. Even my 94-year-old grandmother spent two days tying ribbons on our programs and helping us stuff our welcome bags!
What advice do you have for folks currently planning a wedding? The wedding day will be over before you know it! Spend extra on the vendors who will help you preserve those memories forever, like a photographer and videographer.
What’s next for you as a couple? What memories are you looking forward to making together? We start our jobs as residents at the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System on July 1! Glenn will be an Orthopedic Surgeon and I will be an Obstetrician-Gynecologist. We bought our first house two weeks after our wedding, and have spent most of the month of June learning about the joys of home ownership: lots of painting and projects! We are also looking forward to taking our honeymoon together in the next year, if our busy intern schedules allow us! We are excited to start a family (and maybe get a dog!) when the time is right, and, of course, to grow in our love for each other!

Photographer: Rachel May Photography / Videographer: Caleb Lee of East West Productions / Planner: Allison Barnes Events / Venue, Caterer, and Lighting: Veritas Vineyard and Winery / Florist: Southern Blooms / Cake Baker: Hotcakes Bakery / Pies Baker: Proper Pie / Doughnuts: Sugar Shack / Band: The Dickens of Sam Hill Entertainment / Paper Products: Paper on the Avenue / Bride’s Gown: “12450” by Wtoo / Bridal Salon: Bella Rosa Bridal / Bride’s Hairpiece: Ayajewellery / Hair and Makeup: Jennifer Saunders MUA / Bride’s Shoes: Kate Spade / Bridesmaids’ Dresses: “D660” in Palomino by Alfred Sung / Menswear: The Black Tux

Rachel May Photography is a delightful member of our Blue Ribbon Vendor Directory!

lisa Written with love by Lisa
5 Comments
  1. avatar Occasions In Print reply

    Love the color palette here and the venue is gorgeous!

  2. avatar Dana reply

    I love all the bows on their dresses! So cute!

  3. avatar Rachel May reply

    Thank you SO much for featuring Glenn & Stephanie’s wedding! It’s an honor to be featured on SW!

  4. avatar Clarisa reply

    Beautiful couple. As I see it was really amazing. I wish you all the good things in this world!

  5. avatar Elizabeth Cornwell reply

    This is a GORGEOUS wedding! Do y’all know what company did the big oxfords for the bride and bridesmaids?

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