From the Bride: Oh, happy day! Every little girl dreams of her perfect wedding in one way or another, for me it was less about the dress and flowers and more about a day surrounded by family and love. However, no bride ever expects to re-plan her wedding twice in the middle of a pandemic. At the beginning of 2020 I had my dream wedding completely planned and booked, I was finished and just waiting on our day to arrive. But thirty days out we had to change our date, and then three weeks away from our new date we had to change the location. I knew that God had a much bigger plan then I could ever imagine and I had to have faith in Him. He gave me the dream wedding that I didn't even know I wanted or actually needed.

When we were asked what the theme of our would be we would answer family, because to us that is what we wanted most for our day was to be surrounded by our families and our church family. Our wedding took place on a farm that has been in my family for over seventy years, a place where my grandmother grew up, then my mother, and then me. This farm had been built on generations of love and hard work, the perfect setting for our day and God knew it before I did. I was drove into the ceremony by my dad in my papaw’s vintage Chevelle, this is what I mean by God knew this is what I needed more than I did. We lost my papaw suddenly a few months before our special day and he and I shared a love for this car. He would take me to all my school dances in it and would often surprise me at school in it as a kid. Being able to ride up in his car on his farm gave me so much peace and healing on not being able to share this day with him. We always joked about dancing on my wedding day together. Our ceremony was officiated by Drew's dad, while our siblings and closest friends stood by us and ended with a family prayer where our parents and siblings came together to lay hand on us and bless our marriage.

Our reception was nothing short of pure magic. A clear-top tent with thousands of little twinkling lights that only enhanced the natural beauty that surrounded us. Instead of the traditional head table, we chose to have a family kings table to mimic the family dinners we have every Sunday with my family after church. I come from a big family that is known for being excellent cooks, so we wanted to give our guest a little taste of home with our favors. My grandparents made miniature homemade jam and honey jars for our guest to enjoy with our southern biscuit bar or to take home for later. Our wedding cakes were also homemade by my grandmother and myself, but the really special element to our cake table was our cake knife. This cake knife belonged to a very special lady who had always been like a bonus grandmother to both Drew and I. Joan had used it on her wedding day over 50 years ago and she would loan it to special couples to use on their special day over the years. Unfortunately, we lost Joan a few years ago to cancer but her daughter offered us the knife for our wedding and said Joan would be so proud to have us use it. We proudly used it and displayed it on our cake table with a picture of Joan. For me, my favorite part of the day was just before our sparkler exist, the DJ announced that it was the final dance of the night and all of our families and friends flooded the dance floor. I remember just taking a second and being in awe of this beautiful moment where we were surrounded by our loved ones, everyone just being so happy, laughing, dancing, and just feeling so blessed. But my husband’s favorite moment is a little more comical, our unconventional communion. We choose to share our first communion as husband and wife during our ceremony instead of doing a unity candle. It wasn't until we were both saying our vows that our family noticed that no one set out the bread and juice for our communion, so a guest ran to our caterer and asked for a biscuit and lemonade. And that is what we shared for our first communion, but hey it was 2020 so we just rolled with it!