From the bride:

“Description of our wedding:
How we met – Andrew and I met in a campus ministry our freshman year at Duke University. We dated for all 4 years and then got married! You can find more details about us on our wedding website.

Engagement Story – I was heading down to Durham with my mom to move into my apartment to start my senior year, while my dad was with my sister Shanna out in LA helping her move into USC. I was excited to start my senior year, and excited to see Andrew, who I had not seen in several months. Eager to spend some time together, we agreed to go on a walk around Duke’s East Campus when I arrived in Durham.
After a busy day of unpacking and moving, my mom and I grabbed some pizza with Andrew’s family family and were ready to call it a night. Then Andrew asked me if I still wanted to go on our walk. I told him no–we had previously agreed to help my roommate Karen set up her lofted bed, and as it was already around 9pm. I said we should skip the walk and just go help Karen so she could go to sleep. It took some convincing, but Andrew finally persuaded me to go on the walk. As we started the 1.7 mile loop around East Campus, I saw something sticking out of the ground. “What is it?”, I asked him. All he replied was, “Why don’t you go find out?”. I walked over and saw a rose tied to a wooden rod, stuck in the ground. As I pulled the rose out of the ground, I noticed a tag tied to the flower that said “September 2009”. I flipped the card over and there was a handwritten note about how we had met that month…
Continuing along the loop, Andrew had placed a rose for every month we had been dating (and we dated all 4 years at Duke!). The last “rose” was actually a bouquet of roses in a gazebo with a tag label “August 2012”. All the tag said was “Turn around :)”. My heart pounding, I turned around and Andrew proposed! I said yes, and then we went to share the news with our families.

Wedding Vision – I wanted a rustic but elegant wedding, and our venue (Adaumont Farm) fit this perfectly. The venue had rustic details (horse stables, horses, a barn, etc), but was still elegant in the sheer curtain drapery and cast iron chandeliers.

DIY – We did all of our own wedding decorations and bouquets. The DIY bouquets were particularly fun because all of the bridesmaids could make their own bouquets unique! Our wedding cake was also made my 2 of our friends (see details below). I also did my own makeup and hair. I followed this your tube tutorial to do my hair.

Memorable Moment – We had originally bought sparklers to do a grand “sparkler exit”, but it was pouring rain when we left the wedding. Instead our DJ had all of the guests line up and form a tunnel with their hands for us to run through. That was one of my favorite parts of the reception. Oh yes, and it was memorable that it poured rain 5 minutes before our outdoor ceremony. Luckily it stopped long enough for us to complete the ceremony and take pictures!

First Dance – L.O.V.E. by Nat King Cole

Unique Detail – The wedding present that I gave to Andrew has a particularly interesting story. One day when we were riding in the car, I asked him what two celebrities he would invite to the wedding. Being an avid USA Soccer fan, Andrew responded with Brek Shea and Landon Donovan. I decided that since they obviously wouldn’t be able to come to our wedding, I would try to get something from each of them to give to him. Break Shea is not only a great soccer player, but also a painter, so I ordered a painting from his website to give to Andrew. I was also able to contact his agent via the website and arrange for Brek Shea to send a letter along with the painting to congratulate Andrew. Landon Donovan was a little bit harder for me to get in contact with. I found his fan mailing address online and mailed him a photograph and asked him to sign the photograph, congratulating Andrew. It took several months, but eventually I got the autographed picture back! I framed it and gave it to Andrew the morning of our wedding along with Brek Shea’s painting.

Vendors:
Venue – Adaumont Farms, Trinity, NC. The venue also had a NASCAR show room, which was really entertaining for our wedding guests!

Caterer – Sweet Basil’s Catering

Flowers – Costco! We ordered all of our flowers from them in bulk for cheap. Our bouquets were DIY, which was a really fun activity to do with all of my bridesmaids the morning of the wedding.

Cake – we ordered a 3 tiered cake stand online, and 2 of our friends (Lewis Purcell and Maggie Howell) made the cake as their wedding present to me and Andrew.

Dress / Shoes – I ordered my dress on clearance from David’s Bridal, and the dress can be found here The dress was originally strapless, but I had a seamstress (Bettina Bierly) custom sew in the lace sleeves. My veil was a Vera Wang, and can be found here. Since I am relatively tall, I decided to wear ballet flats (plus they are comfortable!). I bought my shoes from the Dressy Group

Photographer – You! I loved our photos, and have many of them hanging up around my house. I can not tell you how many compliments I received!

Love her hair? Learn how to do it yourself by following this tutorial! 🙂