Weddings: The Big Day

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Real Upstate Weddings

"I hope you’ll join me in finding out what forever is like…”

These words, inscribed on a card given to Emily eleven months after she and Russell started dating, would culminate in a fairytale wedding and a honeymoon in Paris, France.

Emily recalled childhood visits to the Peace Center and the outdoor wedding receptions that often took place there. Enthralled by the romance and beauty of those events, Emily set about creating her own fantasy wedding after Russell proposed.

Emily says she was so nervous at the ceremony she kept her eyes on Russell as she walked down the single, center aisle in Daniel Chapel. “Right when my Dad and I got to the front of the church … Russell whispered to me ‘Hey, you.’ At that moment all my butterflies went away … and everyone else disappeared.”

Emily and Russell were then whisked away by trolley for the ten-minute ride to Wyche Pavilion. A view of the Reedy River served as their backdrop as they danced to one of Russell’s favorite songs, “This Kind of Love” by Sister Hazel.

At the end of the evening, Emily and Russell traveled toward forever in a white, horse-drawn carriage.
“It was a fairytale ending to a fairytale day,” she says.