Chandler + Sam’s Wedding

Chandler and Sam’s wedding was so unique and I loved it!!!! They incorporated so many traditions and everything they love into their big day! They were married in Beersheba Springs at the bride’s family cottage and everything was gorgeous! The ceremony and reception were both outside and the view where the ceremony took place was unbelievable! If you are around Chandler and Sam very much you will realize how important family is to them both! Sam grew up in New Orleans and his family is still there so of course they had to include a New Orleans flair to the reception! The groom’s cake was decorated with a fleur de lis and surrounded by Mardi Gras beads! They even had a live band that followed them out to the car playing When The Saints Go Marching In! It was great!!!! They also incorporated some from the bride’s family by having the wedding at the family’s cottage that has been in the family for a very long time. Also, the bride wore a veil that has been in her family for generations… She was actually the 45^th bride in her family to wear the veil at their wedding!!!! They even did something really ingenious for the centerpieces! Each person that was really special and important to the bride and groom were asked if they could borrow their favorite vase and share the story behind the vase with the couple. Each of the tables and special areas were decorated using these vases filled with beautiful flowers and a cute note card close to the vase to tell the story behind the vase and whom it belonged to. There really were so many great details! Oh and during the reception it came a really bad storm so everyone rushed from the tent up to the cottage that has a huge wrap around porch to finish dancing the night away! We really enjoyed photographing Chandler and Sam and getting to know them! They are such a sweet couple! Congratulations Chandler and Sam and we pray God blesses your life together!!!!!

How did you first meet and what were your first thoughts/impressions of each other? Who, what, when, where, and why? Give us the details! 🙂

Chandler: We met on eHarmony at the end of 2009. We emailed back and forth through the Christmas holiday season. In emails, he told me about his recent trip to the Grand Canyon and he told me about his parents coming to visit after Christmas and how he would be taking them to Opryland to see Ice. I was impressed and intrigued that he was well travelled and I could tell from the way he emailed about his family, he was close with them. Family is such a big part of my life so him being close with his family even though he lives so far from them was an instant attraction for me. After the holidays, we officially met in person on January 9, 2010.

Sam: We met online on a dating website. As we emailed back and forth, I thought she was fun and had a good personality. I noticed we had a lot of common interests. I saw we liked a lot of the same movies and TV shows and she seemed to have the same sense of humor as I do. Her photos were nice and I liked how pretty her eyes were.

Tell us about your first date!

Chandler: Our first date was dinner and a movie at Opry Mills. We had originally decided to have dinner at Macaroni Grill but when we walked in, the wait time was over forty-five minutes for a table. I don’t like to wait and I really liked that he didn’t either! We walked out and went to the Aquarium Restaurant where we were seated right away. We started talking and we just couldn’t stop. The waiter kept coming over and asking if we were ready to order. Every time we would tell him we weren’t ready yet or we hadn’t had time to look at the menu. Minutes later, he would come over again and we had to tell him we hadn’t decided yet. Sam suggested we order a crab dip appetizer just to get the waiter to go away! We had a fantastic dinner and we talked for hours. Never on a first date has a man let me eat off his plate likes it’s no big deal! We shared our food with each other like we’d been together for years. It was comfortable and wonderful and unlike any other first date I’d ever been on.

Sam: Our first date was in January 2010 and it was so cold. It was so, so, so cold! We met at Opry Mills and we were going to go to Macaroni Grill for dinner and when we saw the line to get a table was so long, we decided to go across to the Aquarium Restaurant. After we were seated at the Aquarium Restaurant, I remember Chandler asked the waiter some really impressive and intriguing questions about the fish in the tank. He didn’t know the answers to her questions but he said could go ask someone! After dinner, we went to see Avatar in IMAX 3D. We talked so much and took a long time to eat dinner so we ended up with pretty bad seats in the IMAX theater for the movie! It was okay because we saw the movie at least two more times on TV and on DVD rental because Chandler liked it so much!

When did you first know he/she was the one?

Chandler: After meeting in January 2010, we talked a lot and got to know each other. I told him many things about myself, one of which was that I collect shot glasses from every place I visit and that I am an Atlanta Braves fan. Sam is from New Orleans so he is of course a big Saints fan. The Saints went to the Super Bowl for the first time in a long time that February. He went down to visit his family and to watch the game. The Saints won! It was amazing! He came back to Nashville and we got together for dinner. He told me he brought me something back from his trip. I opened the bag and found a string of Mardi Gras beads with the Braves logo on it. Also in the bag was a shot glass with music notes and New Orleans written on it. I had told him these things about myself weeks before he went. The fact he had listened, remembered and then brought me these gifts because he knew I’d like them was how I knew he was the one

Sam: There was no real “moment” when I knew Chandler was the one. On the first date, after Avatar was over she was really nice to drive me back to my car because it was so cold. I thought that was really sweet of her. It made an impression on me. The longer we dated the more fun I had being with her and the more I wanted to be around her. At the beginning of April, she told me she had something to tell me and she didn’t want to freak me out. She told me she loved me. I was really happy to hear her say it and I said “Oh I love you too.” I guess I said it too calmly because she said, “You know you don’t have to say it just because I did.” I told her I wasn’t just saying it and that I meant it. I saw how happy it made her. After that we started to say ‘I love you’ to each other every day and I can’t remember a day we haven’t said it.

Tell us all about the proposal!

Chandler: I was dreading my 30^th birthday. My birthday is in February, which is always cold, gray and dreary. Sam took me on a birthday cruise to Key West and the Bahamas. We spent my birthday in Key West! It was 73 degrees, sunny and beautiful. My birthday cruise was wonderful. The last night of the cruise, as the ship was sailing back up the East Coast to Jacksonville, on the top deck of the ship under the stars, Sam asked me to marry him. I started to cry (happy tears)! I said, “Yes, yes, of course!!!”

Sam: We took a cruise to Key West and the Bahamas for Chandler’s birthday. I knew I wanted to ask on the cruise. I didn’t know how to get a ring onto the cruise ship so I thought we could either get it on the ship in their jewelry store or wait and get the ring after we got home. While we were on the cruise, I was trying to think of a way to do it. I decided I’d wait until the end of the cruise to do it. I knew if I did it first, she wouldn’t be able to wait a whole week to tell her family and friends! The moment on the cruise wasn’t exactly planned out. On the last night of the cruise, we were walking on the top deck and no one else was around and it seemed like a good time. I also had thought about proposing at Beersheba at sunset but her birthday cruise just seemed to work. I liked being on the water it was a nice place to propose. Besides it would have been several months later when we would be at Beersheba so I’d have had to wait longer! I was really nervous when I asked her. I was trying to make it perfect and make the moment special. This can only be done once and I needed to make sure it was perfect!

What is the one thing you love most about each other?

Chandler: I can only pick one? There are so many things I love about Sam! I guess my most favorite thing about Sam is how thoughtful and sweet he is. He always knows how to make me smile, cheer me up, and he always does little things that let me know he cares. Little wonderful things like getting my favorite cereal at the grocery store when he sees I’m running low, buying me flowers every year on the anniversary of our first date, and rubbing my feet after I take off uncomfortable (but very cute!!) shoes that I’ve worn all day even when I blatantly ignored his nice warning that morning of “You know we’re going to do a lot of walking today…” He treats me like a queen and I am so thankful that we found each other.

Sam: She always makes me happy after a long day at work. She is always excited to see me when I get home and she tries to beat our cat to the door to hug me first. She even says to our cat “I get to see him first!” when our cat meows at me when I walk in. She is a genuinely good person and she makes me happy.

If you feel comfortable, share with me something silly or quirky the other person does that is normally annoying or crazy, but makes you love them a bit more each time… Or you know you love them because when they do it, you don’t kill them! 🙂

Chandler: Sam and I have many TV shows that we DVR. He is into all of these shows. However, when we sit down on the couch to watch them, he will watch about half of the show and then slowly start to nod off. I’ll be gasping at plot twists or laughing at jokes and I’ll look over and he’ll be snoring. We’ll have to re-watch the whole episode at a later date but it’s so cute because when he falls asleep, our cat senses it and climbs up onto the couch and curls up next to him. Within minutes, both Sam and our cat are snoring in unison.

Sam: We will sit down to watch a TV show and we will get 2 minutes into it and she will say “Okay can you please pause it?” I’ll pause and she’ll get up and do something she forgot to do for a few minutes then come back and sit down and watch. It happens every single time we sit down to watch a show. It’s really funny and almost like clockwork.

Besides getting married what is the one thing you are looking forward to on your wedding day?

Chandler: Besides marrying my best friend, I am looking forward to joining our families. My family is such a big part of my life and I love Sam’s family like my own. The first time I ever met his family, I felt right at home with them. My favorite vacations are the ones we spend in New Orleans with his family. I am very excited to join our families and create one big family unit. This will be the only day in our lives where everyone we love will be in the same spot. I want to soak in every moment of being surrounded by so much love and I want to remember each and every bit of it.

Sam: I’m really looking forward to seeing all of our family. Since I live in Nashville, I don’t get to see my family very often so being able to see my parents, my brother, my cousins and my aunts and my uncles will be really great. I’m excited for them to see how beautiful Beersheba is and meet Chandler’s family.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY8pMLHo22U ]

Vendors

Florist: Flowers by Cary

Cake: The Cake Lady

Caterer: High Roller Smokers

Musicians: Allison Kerr and Dixieland