These pictures show the sequence of what Marty and I saw as we arrived in New Hill at Shady Wagon Farm for Stevie and Pete's wedding on June 19, 2010 at 6:30. Never been to a "slow wedding" before! The day was hot as blue blazes though and I knew the guests would prefer that we speed it up rather than slow it down.
Shady Wagon Farm is a beautiful pastoral setting with a lake and geese and a fountain and gazebo out of the water. This picture above is taken on the barn side of the lake.
This is what it looks like from the house side of the lake. Cindy Carroll, the owner, and her husband, created such a wonderful setting for a wedding. Cindy was not there today but her daughter, Lynn, was handling things for her mother.
Marty went over to the barn and got a few shots of the interior to show how pretty it looks.
Cindy also bakes the beautiful wedding cakes for most weddings there.
Xu Catering was providing the food for the wedding.
There was also a photo of our beautiful bride on display in the barn.
Back at the ranch, er, I mean, farm, our DJ, Tim Oxendine, of
Diamond DJ Entertainment, was sweating it out setting up the sound system for the ceremony music. As I said, it was mighty hot with temps in the upper 90s. Tim was a trooper.
Thanks to Allison, our honorary wedding director, we started right on time--no slow wedding here! After the grandparents and parents were escorted in, the guys and I made our entrance. Can you tell that is a water bottle in my right pocket? The guys are dressed in good looking chocolate brown suits with hot pink vests to coordinate with the bridesmaids dresses. Every little detail had been thought out by Stevie and Pete.
This is Asia, one of the bridesmaids, with her daughter, Amaya, our flower girl. It was a really long walk from the house to the lake but she made it!
Here comes the bride. She was escorted in by her grandfather, Ronnie. He was so thrilled to have the honor. Stevie did not want to choose between her father and her stepfather so she chose her grandfather. Good solution.
We are all assembled now and the ceremony began. Stevie and Pete were matched up on line and found that they were extremely compatible. What attracted Stevie to Pete was that he was a high school soccer coach, which meant that they had soccer in common since she had played soccer since age 4. When he first saw her, she smiled at him and he was smitten. They love being with each other all the time they can squeeze in and enjoy spending time with their dogs. They are looking forward to starting a family some day and going to their children's soccer games.
They had a couple of readings in the ceremony and one was read by Carl, Stevie's stepfather. You can also see our photographer,
Ron Cribbs, in this photo too. He is from Sanford and is a friend of Stevie's father, Scottie.
The big moment of the pronouncement of marriage. It was followed by the kiss but I did not get a photo of their kiss, too bad!
They are married! The two red cars in the background are parked on the other side of the lake. It is amazing to me how large they showed up in this photo. I edited them out in the photo above this one.
The new Mr. and Mrs. headed for the cool of the house while their guests went over to the barn for refreshments and cooling down while we took some photos.
See all these color-coordinated good looking men standing around waiting to be in the photos? I really don't know how you guys tolerate the heat in jackets which are probably made of wool or a wool blend. My hat is off to you!
I am so happy that sweat does not show up in photos because we are all dripping! Stevie and Pete are so happy to be married they probably don't even feel the temperature! Congratulations and all the best to you both, Stevie and Pete. You are a cool couple and I know you will love being married and finding out what the future holds for you both!
On our way to my car to leave, Mr. Puddy, resident Persian cat greeted us. I love seeing this very friendly cat when I do weddings here. He is more like a dog than a cat and loves to run out and greet visitors. He's apparently had a hair cut and has lost a lot of fur on his back but I bet that feels good to him! Such a sweet kitty.
