Just Married!

So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate. Matthew 19:6

Well y'all, not even a global pandemic could stop us from vowing to each other before God that we will commit to one another until death. Yesterday was the MOST special, beautiful day for Corey and me as we snuck off to Mallards Croft just a few miles down the road to elope. You know... the good ole kind of elopement where you don't even tell your family because you can't put them or the people they take care of (several work in healthcare) at risk for the coronavirus. Thank you to our friend Savanna for thinking of the perfect spot!

When all of the crazy started going down in March and we were forced to reshedule, I was HEARTBROKEN. I mean, crying at the drop of a hat, upset for several days kind of heartbroken. I was so ready to marry Corey. We had had our eyes set on April 25th for nearly a year and a half, and it just didn't look like it was going to be possible, so we adapted and rescheduled for September, I adjusted my attitude and chose to be positive (after some grieving).

However, last week, surrounding counties started opening back up for marriage licenses and that's when Corey and I immediately started working to find a way to make our original date happen and everything fell right into place (sort of). The venue that I thought would "NO WAY JOSÉ" let us use their space, were so incredibly kind and sweet and so flexible with my ever-changing requests over a 5 day period. At first, I just wanted a pretty piece of grass with some trees behind it, so I asked if we could get married in the vineyard, but then it looked like it was going to rain here, so I requested The Florian - a simple but elegant white building complete with a glass chapel that opened up to a lush green landscape... and the acoustics! Holy smokes! The acoustics in the completely empty glass chapel are every wannabe superstar's (me) dream!

So last Friday, we went and got our marriage license! In pure COVID-19 style, we weren't allowed in the courthouse. Corey says it best, "This takes getting married on the courthouse steps to the literal sense." See below! We even set up our own tripod and all to capture the moment.

Once we had the license in hand, I frantically started searching for a dress, because my original wedding dress is still at the tailor - A Better Fit in Midtown Memphis - as we're saving it for September! Found the dress on ASOS and ordered it Friday. Received it by Tuesday and WOMP WOMPPPPP it was way too big. So I ordered it AGAIN in two sizes thinking that would be all I needed to do! The new dresses arrived on Friday (yes... you read that right... Friday). I tried it on and the 6 fit. perfectly. Except right through my mid-back... The dress has buttons down the back with those little elastic loop closures.... and well... ya gurlll has a broad back even if she has lost 105lbs, so I needed to install a zipper so it didn't pull the elastic loops off and pop my new hussssband in the eyeball with the pretty button, blinding him for life!

So... I pulled out my Nanny's Singer 775 on Friday night after a comical series of events planning for our Mississippi Redneck Riviera Backyard Resort Honeymoon™ (I'll tell you more about that in a minute) and tried to sew on a 16-inch zipper... but alas... after several FaceTime calls with my unknowing parents trying to help us figure out how to fix the sewing machine, we gave up on the machine and I very amateurly hand sewed on the zipper to my new elopement dress. We spent the rest of our "rehearsal" evening dancing in the kitchen to a few of the songs on our Time to Get Married playlist.

Sidebar - about this honeymoon - since we obviously cannot really go anywhere... I wanted to bring the honeymoon to Corey. Initially, I thought I would try to recreate Greece, but let's be serious... even the most ridiculous mural of Santorini for far too much money wouldn't be able to turn our backyard into a mediterranean oasis, so I decided it would be best to harness my inner redneck and create the perfect Mississippi Redneck Riviera Backyard Resort Honeymoon™ complete with a kiddie pool, an inflatable skunk sprinkler, red solo cups, country music on blast, a Boston butt in the smoker, Walmart cutoff jean shorts but with a classy black and white "bride" hat for me (thanks, Bunting women!), a groom... I mean... HUSBAND puff paint shirt for Corey, duck and turkey calls for practicin', and some moldy on-clearance white chaise lounge chairs that your tushy inevitably falls through for a relaxin' getaway. If only the weather will get the memo and rise up in the 80s this week.

Ok, back to Saturday... Corey wrote me the most precious letter with the promises he wanted to make to me before we said our vows and y'all... I cried like a baby, like had to redo my makeup cry-baby-over-here-yas... he also had called a florist last week to get a bouquet and boutonnière made for us and it was so happy and really made our outfits feel complete. (all the heart eyes for that sweet man and for colorful flowers). We listened to part of our wedding day playlist on the drive there, and had the sweetest, most intimate ceremony with the very best minister - our cousin-in-law Joel. I can't say enough good things about the support Joel and Hadley (my cousin) have given us through this season of life. They have counseled us, loved us, inspired us, made us laugh and cry, and been so understanding and flexible and accommodating... the list goes on and on, but their love toward us and for each other is such a testament to how we're commanded to love our neighbors everyday. I hope you have or find a Hadley and Joel in your lives and I hope you are one to someone else.

After the ceremony, our photographer slash now-you're-stuck-with-us-because-we-love-her-so-much-friend Kasey Hampton Photography had peeped the most beautiful yellow mustard field for photos. I'll share those in another post once we get them back, but the sneak peek we saw on her camera...Wow... I am NO model (I can't keep my mouth closed or keep from cracking up during a serious pose), but she is a magician and so talented and I think they're going to be the greatest Ralph-Laurenesque photos ever... you know... like the dramatic perfume ad kind of pictures. I can't wait for them to come back! But for now, here are our ceremony photos!!!!!!

We later came home and FaceTimed/called all of our parents and siblings. For those asking about my parent's reaction - Mama Karen happy screamed with us for 25ish minutes and Papa Smels just kept saying, "This is just so great! This is just so great!" and he got a little weepy-eyed soooo exactly as we'd expect! They've been wanting us to just go ahead and do it since the quarantine began. Corey's parents are little... tamer than mine, so their reactions were just as excited for us but at a much lower decibel. Haha! After calling our peoples, we ordered takeout that never came because the restaurant was closed so the food delivery service canceled the order, and around 7:30pm, we ordered Surf and Turf (well.. yard bird for me since I'm allergic to most Surf) from Southern Social and picked up curbside! Southern social is such a cool restaurant because they ask 'if you're celebrating something' with every order/reservation and when we drove up and they saw us in our wedding get-up, they gave us complementary champagne and cupcakes.... not to mention just how fun it was to celebrate with complete strangers that were SO excited for us! It's hard to paint the picture to do it justice, but it was so fun to experience this wedding in the world during a pandemic. Cars honking at us in the Mini Coop with our Just Married sign on the back, the ecstatic employees at Southern Social, riding around Memphis with our fave music playing... it was just... great... and a part of us that is just very us. So though our day obviously wasn't what we had originally planned for, it was better than we could have ever dreamed.

We are so excited to celebrate with all of our friends and family in September. We want to thank so many of y'all that have sent us texts/calls/gifts during this quarantine and on our "almost wedding day that turned back into our real wedding day", and for all 7 of you that alerted us of the Busch Light for a year giveaway... hahaha! Though we're not Busch Light drinkers, if we win, we'll have a blow out for those of you that are! We love y'all, we thank y'all for all of the love and support and we CANNOT WAIT to dance the night away in September!

XO,

Sara and Corey