Emily and Michael met in college at Florida State University. During the first week of school, they both showed up at a game night that was being hosted by mutual friends. It was not love at first sight, but rather friends at first sight and four years later their friendship turned into marriage. They got married in 2014 at Lichgate Park in Tallahassee, Florida under a beautiful oak tree. Little did they know that when they first met at that college game night that they were going to be husband and wife.
We are so excited to celebrate these two Thursday night at The Big Fake Wedding St. Louis!
What was the most unique part of your engagement?
The most unique part of our engagement was that it involved our friends and family. Our engagement was a production of our community. Emily’s friends wrote her notes of encouragement and gave them to her as she walked across the boardwalk where Michael had asked her to be her girlfriend. Michael’s friends played music for us in the back of the van that we were driving to our favorite restaurant. Both our families traveled from different cities to meet us at our favorite restaurant to celebrate our engagement. By far the most unique thing about our engagement was that it was a community event. Our friends and family supported us through the whole process from dating to getting married.
What is the most awesome thing about your marriage?
The most awesome thing about our marriage is honesty. Our marriage is rooted in the honest truth. Both of us have committed to live honest lives before each other. We want to hold nothing back from one another and our marriage has provided the commitment and love necessary for each of us to be completely honest with one another. We can honestly share how we feel and we can honestly be who we are whether that is good or bad. At times this can be hard, sad, difficult and frustrating but as long as we are honest we can at least know the truth. This has made room for both of us to experience an intimacy that daily confirms our own lovability. We both have come to find through honest living that each one of us is lovable by the other. Our marriage has made room for us to honestly love one another and so when we tell each other, “I love you,” we can believe this to be true.
What advice would you give an engaged couple?
The advice that we would give to an engaged couple would be to not fear pain. There have been moments in our marriage where both of us have had to share dark secrets and sad stories. There have been times in our marriage where both of us have hurt one another. There have been days in our marriage where it feels like we can’t breathe, but whenever life gets hard it is good to embrace the pain even if it scares us. Sometimes we are tempted to ignore it and forget it or toughen up and move on but some of our sweetest memories of being married has been in these very painful moments where we just cry with one another. Don’t hear us saying, “Marriage sucks!,” but please hear us saying, “Marriage is sweet!” Marriage does sometimes feel like a fairytale, but it will also have hard times. In those hard times, you must rely on your faith and the covenant that you have made to each other. You work through the hard stuff together, and through this, your love for each other will grow tremendously.
What is “your song” and why?
Our song is, Uptown Funk, by Bruno Mars. That song is our jam! We love this song because it is the perfect song to crank up the dancing and partying. Both of us love to dance our hearts out and when Uptown Funk hits the sounds waves our inner Michael Jackson’s come out.
We invite you to join us at The Big Fake Wedding St. Louis, Thursday night at Moulin Events! There are still a few tickets available so grab yours here now!
