Sam & Chessie’s Ewing Chapel Wedding

Sam & Chessie were married on a beautiful spring morning in May at Ewing Chapel in Gate City, VA.  I am so happy that I was there to capture their beautiful, intimate wedding surrounded by friends and family.  Their reception at the home of the bride in Snowflake, VA was just perfect and an amazing brunch was served. Here’s to many more morning weddings! ♥

Chessie gave me the details of their love story and I wanted to share it with you all.

“Before we started dating, we were friends for a few years. We met through a mutual group of friends in college, and though when we met neither one of us was looking for a serious relationship, we always enjoyed spending time together and quickly noticed how well we got along and how similar our personalities and interests were. The summer before our senior year of college we began working at the same country club, which meant we were spending even more time together. By the end of that summer we were pretty sure we wanted to begin dating, but we both take dating relationships very seriously and had a conversation about what each of us wanted from the other person. Like a lot of other things, we had similar goals an expectations from each other and Sam asked me to be his girlfriend in an Aspen Dental parking lot about a week later!”

“We both believe in the concept of “dating to marry”, and though we took things slow in the beginning, it did not take long to come to the realization that we both were picturing spending the rest of our lives together. Once we both graduated college and started wondering what the next step in our relationship would be, we found out we were expecting a baby! We decided the day we found out that we wanted to be married, and once we got some details sorted out and Sam proposed, we were married six weeks later and a perfect little ceremony with our close family and friends. We are enjoying married life and looking forward to meeting our son in just a few short weeks. Though the past few months have been a whirlwind of milestones in our relationship, we are elated and feel this is exactly where God intends us to be!”

VENUE: Ewing Chapel, Gate City, VA
DRESS: David’s Bridal
GROOM’S ATTIRE: Jacket, Tommy Hilfiger; Pants: Peter Millar
HAIR: Heather Broadwater
FLOWERS: Made by Hand’s Floral
CAKE: Sweet Maggie’s Craft Bakery
CATERER: North Fork Catering Company

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.           -1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV

Oleg & Veronica: Natural Tunnel Wedding

Oleg and Veronica are a super fun couple with a love of Star Wars, Star Trek, super heroes, Game of Thrones and one other. They met at University of Virginia’s College at Wise where Oleg was an exchange student and Veronica was on the golf team.

Oleg’s proposal was one of the sweetest ever. He called Veronica to tell her that he was fixing dinner for her at his apartment after a late day at college. She knocked on his door, let herself in, kicked off her shoes and sat her book bag down – Zombielike. Veronica looked up and Oleg handed her a puppy, overwhelming her because she loves dogs so so much. Oleg said, “I bought her a little puppy collar.” Veronica looked at the collar and realizes there is a ring around it. When she looked away from the dog, Oleg was already on one knee. That’s when he asked her to marry him and, of course, she said “Yes!”

Their wedding at the Cove Ridge Center at Natural Tunnel State Park was perfect for them and their fun-loving friends. Since Oleg’s parents live in Russia and could not be there, they were connected via Skype by one of the guests. They had their laptop connected to their big screen television and had a wonderful seat.

As self-proclaimed geeks, they incorporated a lot of the things that they love into their day. Darth Vader held the pen for guests to sign the book; Veronica’s bouquet was anchored by a lightsaber; the cake toppers were Katniss Everdeen and Dean Winchester; and the cake itself was a masterpiece of sugar sculpted Millennium Falcons, a fondant dragon and Spiderman, Batman’s Gotham City and Game of Thrones. It also tasted amazing!

Sunset at the Gazebo overlooking Rye Cove provided an awesome photo opportunity to end this best day ever! Every time I look at them it makes me smile because this couple is so happy. ♥

Venue: Natural Tunnel State Park
Coordinator: Debbie Miller
Hair: Meg Stockard
Wedding Dress: David’s Bridal
Bridesmaids Dresses: David’s Bridal
Tuxes/Suits: Men’s Warehouse
Flowers: Made By Hands Floral
Catering: Renda Keith
Cake: Jo-Rita Clayton