“David and I met in New York City at NYU’s 7th Street Dorm in June 2008. I was a rising junior at NYU and was working for the NYU Housing office over the summer; David was a rising senior at NC State, but was interning in NYC and living in NYU housing for the summer. We lived in the same dorm and quickly became friends. Friendship then turned into a sweet summer romance, and I was heartbroken when David left at the end of the summer. David returned to NYC for another internship in the summer of 2009, and romance ensued again. This time, it was David who was left heartbroken when he returned to North Carolina at the end of the summer, but he didn’t tell me that until years later.We maintained an off and on friendship for the next few years, and in the early spring of 2013 we reconnected and began texting more regularly. In June 2013, David was visiting a friend in NYC and we saw each other for the first time since 2009. Sparks were reignited! Dave was passing through NYC again that July, and took me out to dinner for my 25th birthday – we had known each other for 5 years at this point, but it felt like our very first date. I decided to visit Raleigh for the first time that Labor Day weekend, and we made it official 2 weeks later. We knew by December that we would be married one day. After 14 months of long distance dating between NYC and NC, I moved to Raleigh in November 2014.”

2) David proposed on January 29th, 2016 at Wine & Design in Raleigh. Wine and Design is a special place for us; while David had accidentally slipped saying “I Love You” twice before, it was at Wine and Design, while drinking wine on the porch, that David formally told me he loved me. On January 29th, I thought we were going to a class with our friends Ray and Kyle for a party that Ray was throwing for her friends. The private room was set up, and when David and I arrived, only Kyle and Ray were there. The easel with the painting for class was turned around and David asked if I wanted to go look at the painting, so I walked up to the easel to turn it around. The painting was a birch tree with a heart carved into it with two random initials carved into the heart. As I was looking at the painting, I heard David behind me say “I was thinking we could paint an A & D on it”. I turned around saying “duh, I’m not going to paint random initials on it”, and David was on one knee asking me to marry him. I screamed a LOT, dropped to my knees, and of course said YES. Ray is a hobby photographer so she ran around taking pictures of the whole thing. When I could almost breath again, both of our families ran into the private room! My family all lived out of state at the time, so it was an amazing surprise! The party was never for Ray’s friends – David had arranged an amazing night and weekend for our families. We had a wonderful (and late!) night painting and drinking together. We spent the whole weekend celebrating at our favorite Raleigh spots with our families – it was amazing!

3) Our vision for the wedding was for it to feel romantic, intimate, cozy, and very inclusive. We wanted all of our beloved friends and family to know that they had an exceptional role in sharing and creating the day with and for us. So, we incorporated our guests into the ceremony, had pictures of us with all of our guests as our escort cards, and had our talented family and friends assist with personal touches like the calligraphy, ceremony music, and corn hole boards; my mother, a Minister, even officiated! After choosing Fearrington Village and the Garden Terrace specifically, we knew we wanted a big focus for the space to be on our flowers; we had unstructured and textured floral arrangements of dusty rose, smokey mauve, white, and burgundy, and we added greenery and candles wherever we could. The fire was roaring all night long, adding to the coziness! We also wanted the reception to feel full of energy from start to finish, so we had two high energy songs play right at the beginning of the reception to get everyone on the dance floor immediately. The night was magical – it was filled with so much love and so much fun!!!

4) It is so hard to come up with a highlight – everything came together so perfectly. Every exciting moment rolled into another incredible memory. The food, the flowers, the speeches, the dancing! After completing a walk through the sparkler exit once, I spontaneously ran back to the start of the tunnel and sprinted through it again into David’s arms for a completely unplanned Dirty Dancing style lift. It was so us! So filled with spontaneity and love – it’s something I’ll always laugh about and look back on fondly.