Y'all. I mean, look at that gorgeous picture! This was another ceremony at one of my favorite venues: Ashely Manor in Baton Rouge, LA. If you have never seen that barn, you really need to check it out, especially if #rustic & #country are your style.
So, first I want to talk about their wedding. I LOVED discussing their wedding with them at their interview because it was very similar to my own. She had sunflowers (MY FAVORITES đđđ) and her bridesmaids were in navy blue dresses. That color combination makes for such a beautiful picture! One of my favorite things is that all her bridesmaids wore boots! They went all the way country and it was absolutely stunning!
When I met Justin and Emily, they were expecting their first child, a little girl. I was so excited when they told me, but I was a little nervous as she would be having the baby before the wedding. There's a lot of unknowns with that, but with a little trust and little faith, everything always works out, and it did! Their little girl was a beautiful addition to the ceremony, and you can just see new daddy, Justin, beaming with pride. Side note, she was a little colic-y so that's why he was holding her like this. Daddy always knows best, and can always calm his baby girl!
Ok, so let's get to their story:
First, Justin is one of my favorite grooms! He was so into the interview, and wanted to make sure that everything was perfect for their ceremony. He even mentioned that he wasn't sure if he could write his own vows because he might get so worked up. But at the same time, he was so laid back and had a great personality. He was laughing and joking the whole interview, which made for a great ice breaker.
Emily and Justin were very much so on the same page, which is the page that a lot of couples are on when I meet with them: The "I don't know" page, which is PERFECTLY FINE! Lots of times people don't even know that they need an officiant, let alone how to answer the questions that I ask them about how they want their ceremony to sound.
So, Justin took the reins when I asked how they met. Emily and Justin met at a mutual friend's house for a crawfish boil, but that was pretty much the extent of it. They added each other on Facebook while at the party, and that was it. A few weeks later, after casually chatting, Emily invited Justin over to her sister's house (where she was) to hang out. Justin went over, hung out, played with Emily's niece and nephew, and that's were the friendship started.
According to Justin, Emily kept him in the "friend zone" for a couple of months! Then, Emily let the cat out of the bag that she was starting to like Justin more than just a friend. That's when they went on their first date. Emily introduced Justin to her parents on that first date, and she said that, literally, 5 minutes after she introduced them to Justin, her mom asked Justin if he would be coming along on their Tennessee vacation, which they were leaving for in a few days (WAY TO GO MOM! đđ).
Justin ended up going to Tennessee with Emily's family, rode there and back with her parents, and spent 8 days in the mountains with the DeBates. Talk about a way to get to know each other!
The next question I asked them is one of my favorite questions that I always ask: What made you fall in love with each other?
Justin's answer: She's quick, anything you say she's always coming back at you quick. When she introduced me to her sister she was like, "Yeah this is my friend.... Wait, what's your name again?" And she knew my name, but it was the first time at her sister's house and it was the first time I'd seen her since the crawfish boil. Just things like that, we are always joking and messing with each other all the time and cutting up, but we never put each other down. We always keep it clean.
Emily's answer: The way that he was with my family, like the kids and stuff. They clung to him. The way he treated me, spoiled me, etc. I pretended like I was sleeping one night when he was leaving, and he kissed me on the forehead, and that's when I realized, I better lock this one in! I stayed pretending like I was sleeping because I didn't know what to do.
Emily and Justin's ceremony was the first one that I had officiated that included a Sand Ceremony. This is when you have a large vase of whatever shape you want, and two different sand colors. They did this in lieu of a unity candle. So when the time came in the ceremony where they normally do the unity candle, Emily and Justin went overtook their vase and layered the different color sands to represent their two families becoming one. It was beautiful, and something that I now ask couples if they would be interested in doing, because that was something that made Emily and Justin's ceremony unique to them.
I was so glad to get a picture of when they exchanged rings! This is how I normally advise my couples to hold the rings while I say a little bit about them. It's such a symbolic pose where both husband and wife are cradling the physical symbol of their love, and then it seamlessly transitions into the groom taking the bride's ring and the bride simply closing her hand around the groom's ring.
The way it works is the groom cups his hands, right over left, and the bride cups her hands on top of the groom's hands, right over left. I place the rings in the bride's right had, say a small bit about they symbolic meaning of a wedding band, and then the groom, with his left hand (the one on the bottom), takes the bride's wedding band as he gets ready to place it on her finger, and the bride simply closes her right hand around the groom's ring, and offers her left had for him to place her ring on her ring finger. I makes for a great picture, and is a seamless transition into the exchange of rings.
This was such a beautiful couple, such a beautiful family, and such a beautiful reflection of the love that they shared for one another. All the best, Guillory's!
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