Here’s to Happiness: A Love Story (Part 3)

My daddy told me when I was a little girl that the best thing a father can give their child is their last name, and it’s their responsibility to not tarnish it. Being a Huckaby, in the city that I’m from, means I “come from good stock,” that my family works hard and we’re “good people.” A lot of people in our community know the Huckaby name because my dad and uncle own a local flooring business that has been around longer than I have been alive! I don’t know how many times I’ve heard, “You’re a Huckaby, are you?!” from someone who knows my family. I always well up with pride and say, “I sure am!” So, changing my last name and becoming a Phelps was a big deal.

Three months after I said “Yes” to Mark’s proposal, we planned to walk down the aisle and say “I do” so wedding plans quickly sped into action! Luckily for Mark, however, I had been planning my wedding since I was a little girl. Ha ha.

I knew I wanted to get married on our family farm. I had made that decision about five years before Mark. My family bought a 300+ acre farm and I was touring it with dad for the first time. In the middle of this giant field sits two trees that grow independently, with two trunks, but who’s branches enter twine, forming one, much like two people’s lives that grow together in marriage. When I saw it, I said, “Daddy! See those trees over there?! That’s where I wanna get married!” And he laughed and said, “Baby, you have to have a boyfriend first, don’t you think?” I laughed and said, “Okay, but someday!” And he, being the amazing father that he is, assured me that if we still had the farm at that time, I could get married there. When I showed Mark the farm, shortly after we started dating, I told him the story and he liked the idea! It’s my favorite place on earth, so of course it would be the venue for my special day!

Now, I’m not going to lie, when Mark and I started courting, we watched a lot of movies. Romantic Comedy after Romantic Comedy. I have way too many movies about weddings, so I had a lot of ideas! One was that my girls would wear hot pink gowns. Mark quickly squashed that dream. He did not want to be in a hot pink vest. Personally, I thought that would be cute, but we decided on a bright Malibu color.

I knew flowers wouldn’t be an issue because when I moved back home from Atlanta, I started working at a local florist that was owned by a close family friend, and I had already asked her to design my wedding flowers when the day eventually came. We decided on blue orchids to match the vests, and green hydrangeas as a detail color. I had pictures of all of my ideas: bouquets, boutineers, centerpieces, aisle markers, and even details to hang from the wedding trees.

Another long time family friend of mine made wedding cakes, and Mark insisted that we do a taste test, because “Who doesn’t love cake?” and any excuse to eat cake sounded like a good day. We went to Starbucks with Savannah and her boyfriend, now husband, Steven, and tasted all the flavors. They were all amazing, but ultimately we decided to do two different flavors, the top and bottom layers would be vanilla, the middle being strawberry. Then Savannah designed the groom’s cake as two puzzle pieces in the shape of a bride and groom. The bride’s puzzle piece was vanilla, and the groom’s puzzle piece was chocolate. It was going to be a perfect selection for all of our guests!

Many of the other details just fell into place. I got in touch with a manager of a restaurant that had white linen napkins and asked if he could order an additional 200 for me to borrow for our wedding. He agreed and didn’t charge us anything to do so. I wrapped the napkins in twine and bright blue ribbon. We rented tables and chairs from a local vender that my family used for other events at the farm. I made bows to tie on pillars under the pavilion at the farm. We had twinkle lights, draped in white sheer material, hanging from the beams under the pavilion. We had blue and white chevron table runners made for our tables, and they were draped over white table cloths. My daddy had cut a tree trunk into slices for our centerpieces to be placed on. I made an elaborate candy bar filled with all different types of bright blue candies and hung little signs on the jars indicating what was inside, and we had blue and white chevron candy bags to fill for party favors.

The wedding party was made up of both mine and Mark’s life-long, childhood friends and our siblings, most of whom’s weddings we had either attended or been in, so asking them to be a part of our day was pretty easy.

We hired a local disc jockey to play our music for the ceremony and reception. Daddy and I walked down the aisle to “Chapel of Love” by the Dixie Cups, from the movie “Father of the Bride,” which is a movie that my daddy and I watched together when I was just a little girl. It was a nostalgic moment for me, and I absolutely loved it. Then, Mark and I, followed by our wedding party, walked down the aisle after the ceremony to “This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)” by Natalie Cole. Our first dance song was “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheehan. The daddy-daughter dance was to “I Loved Her First” by Heartland, with a surprise “Ice, Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice, as dad and I got the party started! It was amazing and everyone erupted in excitement and laughter!

I never threw my bouquet or had a garter toss because after I got hot in my wedding dress, I stripped down in the bathroom and changed into the white dress I wore for our rehearsal dinner the night before, and then I was exhausted. We had planned a sparkler send-off, but I knew I had to drive to Atlanta afterwards, and a light drizzle was already beginning to come down, so we quickly said our goodbyes and left.