Since you guys shared your stories with me this week, I thought it was only fair to share our story in return.

When I think back on our time together, a few words come to mind: friendship, faith, comfort, adventure, simple, constant, laughter, family, unconditional, and strength.

There have been some definite lows in life for us, both in our pasts and more recently, but our relationship is the one thing that never wavers. You’ll read in our story that we danced in a bar one night and we’ve been together ever since- and that’s no joke. Being apart has never been on the table. I don’t think it’s even crossed either of our minds, and that fills me with strength. Our life is my simple song.

While every love story is different, I pray that everyone finds strength in their stories, and more importantly, in each other.

Okay, enough with the sappy sentiments, let’s get to the good stuff!

This is a long one, so if you don’t have time to read, you can watch both our Proposal Story and Wedding Video here:

Our Proposal : Video by Russ Feltman Films

Our Wedding : Video by Russ Feltman Films

How It All Started

During my sophomore year at Georgia College & State University I was asked by one of my friends to help choreograph a dance for the pledges of his fraternity to perform at their Super Bowl Party. This sounded hilarious to me, so of course I agreed. The next weekend I met with a group of Detla Sigma Phi pledges to help them create a top-notch half time show. Little did I know, my future husband was in this group of dancing goobers (along with a few of my now lifelong friends).

We all had so much fun with this little performance, our friend groups started hanging out more frequently. During the next year, our friend groups became so close, we were basically together whenever we got the chance- and although we were both with other people at the time, Alex and I naturally became close friends.

At the end of the next school year (now both single), the majority of our friend group had apartment leases that were ending and had no where to go for the summer. Everyone was basically homeless except for one dear friend who had extra rooms in her house. So the obvious solution was to all move in together.

Nassim, Taylor, Lily, Michelle, Alex, and I all piled into Laura’s house for the summer. That summer was filled with movie nights, pool days, discrete flirting, and hitting downtown Milledgeville.

One night while watching a band play in the infamous Capital City, Alex asked me to dance. And that was it- three years later, we were engaged…

The Proposal

*Preface* – My parents asked me to come to home for a special “Dove Grill” to welcome the new neighbors to our “neighborhood” (AKA: down the dirt road, across the pond). Of course I asked Alex if he wanted to come, but he said he had to work that weekend, which was totally normal. I believed it with no question.

So on Friday, September 30th, I drove down to Waynesboro for the “dove grill.” When I got home that night, my younger sister Stevie was there too. I still didn’t question anything- just thought she was there for the cookout too. Later that night our mom asked if we would take Lexi (our youngest sister) dress shopping on Saturday morning before the neighbors came over that night. I was like “Absolutely! We’ll have a fun sister shopping trip!” I was actually really excited about it.

Saturday morning comes and next thing I knew I was being woken up at like 7:00 AM, by my mom, Stevie, and Lexi sitting on the foot of my bed. I was NOT happy. They were like aggressively telling me to get up and get ready to go shopping. I was like what is your deal?! Although I was annoyed, I got up and got ready.

Right before we left for our “sister shopping day” Mama asked if we would stop by the store to grab some things for the cookout. This made no sense to me – my response was “why the heck can’t we get the stuff after shopping?!” My mom came back with one of those typical mom phrases like “because I said so!” So of course we went.

After spending way too much time in Wal Mart, we got back in the car and realized Stevie had left her cell phone at home. She insisted that they go all the way back to the house and get it. At this point, I was PO’d.

As Stevie pulled back into the driveway, she put the car in park and handed me a blindfold. I was so mad the only thing I could say was “Why the heck do you have a blindfold in your purse?!” After a brief argument and lots of questioning (Lexi has the whole thing on video), I put the blindfold on.

Blindfolded, and with Stevie and Lexi on each side, they walked me down to our pond house, sat me in a chair, and placed a book in my hands. When Stevie took the blindfold off, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The pond house was decorated SO beautifully- fresh flowers, white table clothes, and pictures of Alex and me hung everywhere.

I was starting to catch on.

I looked down to find a hand made (by Alex) scrapbook of our relationship. The last page had an extremely sweet message with the last sentence telling me he had lied about having to work and that I should turn around. And there he was! So. Many. Tears.

Although the exact memory is blurry for me, I do remember that his proposal words were absolutely beautiful.

Next thing I knew, fire works were going off and my whole family (most of which I didn’t even know were in town) was running out of the house. Then a few minutes later, Alex’s family arrived all the way from Alpharetta to celebrate!

We celebrated with out families for the rest of the morning with coffee, champagne, breakfast (my favorite), and celebratory toasts.

Alex hit it out of the park.

13 months later, we were married in real southern fashion in Bogart, GA.

Thanks for listening, ya’ll!

Go spread some more love this week!

xoxo,

Sammy

Interested in having the Jackson & June team plan, coordinate, or design your wedding? Find out more info here!