Amanda is one of my
sorority sisters and best friends; she was also in my wedding! It was so fun having
weddings back to back. I also was able to help with some of the ring shopping
and picking out, which was so much fun and such an honor. Bride: Amanda M. (Sharp) Johnson
Groom: Jared A. Johnson
Wedding Date: July 9th, 2016
Total number in wedding party: 16 (7 bridesmaids, 7 groomsmen, 1 flower girl, 1 ring bearer)
Total guests: 250
Ceremony: Marsh front in Darien, GA
Reception: The Darien House, Darien, GA
How you met, and the proposal:
Well of course Jared
and I both have different stories on how we met. My first-time meeting Jared,
he was my pledge ride and I remember thinking how cute he was, how he was from
a southern town close to mine, and how he was a football player, all a Win-Win!
I of course attempted to talk to him the entire trip, and asked if he knew a
girl I had grown up swimming with, in which he
proceeded to tell me this girl was his ex-girlfriend. So of course, the truck
got silent, and that’s how that awkward trip ended.
Both of our encounters
were due to our best friend and best man, James Kelly, and he was also
the reason for re-introducing me to Jared at an Open House at Georgia Southern. We were friends for
several years, and our senior year that friendship developed into a
relationship.
Jared and I had a very
unconventional proposal. We had been dating about three years, and were both
living/working around Brunswick, GA. The prior summer, we had talked about me
applying and going back to graduate school to study nurse anesthesia. Sadly,
this is not a program that can be completed online, and we were going to need
to move to wherever I got in. This was extremely scary as one of the places I
applied was in Minnesota... a little too cold for our southern roots! I ended
up getting into my dream school of Wake Forest School of Medicine in
Winston-Salem, NC in December, and the decision was made that we were in this
for the long haul.
Being from traditional
families, our parents wanted us to be married before we moved and I started the
fulltime two-year program. After I got my acceptance letter, our life got a
little crazy. We found out I was accepted in December, and the program was
going to begin in August. Jared told me to start looking at wedding venues to
fit our short timeline, and while looking at one of our favorites (a location where
my sister had gotten married), Jared got down on one knee! Both of our parents
were there, and it was overlooking the marsh (a setting very similar to where
we did get married). Due to scheduling conflicts, we were not able to have our
wedding here, but had it at my parent’s house and land instead, which turned
out to be wonderful! We found out I was accepted in December, engaged by
February, married in July, and moved to another state by the end of July. It
was a whirlwind!
What
was the best bridal/pre-wedding event you attended, and why? {Read more about the fun weekend here.}
My bachelorette party was the greatest trip ever! My
sister/matron of honor, Lindsey Mote, and all of my bridesmaids, really went
out of their way to make this the greatest girl’s trip. I told my sister that
with all of the stress of the wedding, I just wanted a low-key lake weekend.
She ended up finding a house outside of Athens, GA that was on a lake, had a
pool, and a bonus of a swim up pool bar; it was a dream house! They had planned
every detail for the whole weekend. We were able to hang out at the house in
the pool during the day with our “bring your own float” theme party, and go
sing karaoke in Athens that night. It was the best weekend ever!
What was something that made your day special?
While thinking about
who would do what at the wedding, we both kind of noticed there was no big role
for Jared’s father. We decided very early on that instead of him sitting during
the ceremony, we wanted him to officiate the wedding! His dad was thrilled,
obtained his certificate online, and was able to marry us the day of the
wedding. He made the ceremony very personal to us as a couple, and it is something
that we love looking back on!
What was the best wedding gift you received?
When my sister got
married at a coastal location, my dad handmade the arbor under which the
ceremony was held. Since this was seven years ago, the arbor had of course
fallen apart by the time we decided to get married. We were on such a short
timeline, so this wasn’t something that I thought my dad would be able to build
in time. He surprised me the week before the wedding with this beautiful,
handmade, arbor that he had been working on for Jared and me to get married
under. It made the perfect backdrop for our ceremony!
What was the most unique aspect about your
wedding?
We ended up having the
wedding at my parent’s coast house and adjoining marsh front lot. Our ceremony
was on the marsh front lot, and then the reception was back in a tent in front
of our house. It is a wedding site that I don’t think anyone else will ever have,
and was extra special to us due to our memories at this house. It did make it a
little more stressful though since we did all of the prep-work ourselves,
including me mowing my ceremony site on my days off of work... I mean what
bride can say that?! But in the end, it just made it that more special for us
and something we will never forget!
What inspired your wedding day?
Being on the coast, we
wanted to incorporate very coastal aspects to our day. We very frequently do
oyster roast at this house, and incorporated these oyster shells into our day.
We had oyster wreaths on windows, had the same wreaths on our chairs, and had
them tied to the silverware on all the place settings. These oyster shells made
a nice memento for people to take home, and I love seeing when people use them
as a Christmas ornaments! My sister is a great artist and was able to
incorporate this coastal theme into our invitations with watercolors of the
reception house and a map of the surrounding location. We later used these
watercolors on our thank you cards as well. We were able to take wedding
pictures on our dock and served shrimp and grits at our reception. We wanted to
incorporate this theme in any way that we could!
Thankfully my sister
is skilled in all things wedding. I mentioned that she did all of the
invitation stationary, but she also did all of the flowers…and did them all at
8 months pregnant! She, my bridesmaids and most of my family members, made all
of the table runners, bouquets, and arbor flower arrangements. It was nice to
have that stress taken from me, and we saved a ton of money doing it this way!
She now has her own flower company that she does weddings through (Lowell &
Co out of Macon, GA) and I highly recommend her. I couldn’t have made it
through the day without all of the hard work that she did! Also as a wedding
present, she surprised us with snow cones at our reception! They went over
great, and were an awesome way to help with the South Georgia heat!
Floral Design: Lowell & Co Floral
Photography: Ari Merritt Photography
Photography: Ari Merritt Photography
Wedding Dress: J'Adore Bridal
Bridesmaid Dresses: Kennedy Blue
