This is a year of firsts for The NotWedding. Our first trip to Boston, our first trip to Birmingham, and the list goes on. These inaugural events are always special for our team, but having amazing (and beautiful!) couples like Laura and Mark to celebrate make it even more exciting. It is our pleasure to introduce you to our 1st Birmingham NotCouple, Laura and Mark. You have already seen them in their nature-inspired save the date shoot, but their Sappy Love Story is too sweet. Mark is just smitten with his bride and you will be, too, after reading this!
“Oh, where to begin? I guess I will just come right out and say it. Laura and I met while I was just a mere teenager…a senior in high school to be exact, and Laura was a college girl attending Auburn University. I love to kid her about being older than me. It makes for an even better story when I make her sound decades older…but it’s really only one year difference. At first, we were acquaintances and nothing else. We saw each other a few times in passing, but never really spent any time together. After high school, I attended THE University of Alabama (you can see where this is heading…a house divided).
Four or five years passed before the next time we saw each other. Laura graduated from Auburn and a year later, I finished my time at Alabama. She moved home to Atlanta and I found myself back in Birmingham.
It was not until one day in January of 2012 that I saw Laura’s face pop up on my Facebook for the first time. At that moment I remember thinking to myself, “Wow! She is beautiful.” I sent her a message to ask how life was treating her and what she was doing with it. After a few weeks of talking, we met up in Birmingham one weekend and immediately hit it off.
After dating only seven months, I decided that Laura was the one for me. I cannot explain how I knew, except that I had never felt the way I felt about her for anyone else.
In October 2012, I met Laura’s parents for dinner to ask permission to marry their daughter…they said, “Yes!” I proposed in Laura’s home town of Marietta, Georgia in the middle of the historic district, or what the locals call Marietta Square. With three letters along the way of promises from me to her and a hopeful heart, I hit one knee under a huge oak tree. In a candlelit gazebo with a Bible inscribed with Laura’s new name, she said “yes” and made me a very lucky man!
We had a short engagement that ended with a beautiful day in March 2013. It was truly a fairytale wedding in a little town on the Alabama-Georgia line complete with old barns, pastures, silos, hay bales, oak trees and the most beautiful woman walking down the aisle. She was a pure and spotless bride without wrinkle or blemish. It was truly the holiest day there has ever been. The Lord showed up and showed out on our behalf; and it was a day that will never be forgotten.
If I was going to give anyone advice, I would have to say enjoy being engaged and enjoy your big day. It is truly an experience of a lifetime, something that hopefully only happens once in your life. Enjoy every second of it because it will fly by!”
– Mark
Photos: Eric Kelley Photography
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We invite you to join us tomorrow for the 1st Birmingham NotWedding at the BridgeStreet Gallery and Loft at 7:00pm. We still have a hand full of tickets available so grab yours while they last!
