What a Wonderful Wedding Celebration for Melanie and Ryan at Fearrington Country Inn!

Weddings at Fearrington Country Inn are simply fabulous! It is a beautiful setting for a wedding and one of my very favorite places. There are four different garden areas for ceremonies. Melanie and Ryan chose to get married in the Pecan Grove on July 4, 2009 because it is shaded by old pecan trees. They had 145 guests from all over the country attending and I did not see one empty chair, in fact they had to add a couple more rows! As I told Ryan, no one turns down an invitation to a wedding at Fearrington!

Melanie and Ryan chose to see each other before the ceremony so they could take the majority of their photographs. Here is the couple and both their families who traveled here mostly from Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Ryan's brother came down from Virginia.

Here is the wedding party. The maid of honor, Kerri, is Melanie's cousin and her bridesmaid, Megan, is Ryan's sister. Both Melanie and Ryan have brothers named Michael and they served as Ryan's best men. See how patriotically they are dressed in red, white and blue for the 4th of July?

Just one more shot, this time with the minister!

After the photo session, we retired to our separate hang-outs to wait for the guests to arrive and begin the ceremony. When we were all set, Melanie's father, Anthony, proudly escorted in his beautiful daughter! What an exquisite wedding gown!

Their ceremony was very unique and I was so thrilled to be delivering it. Melanie and Ryan wrote in so many funny parts that it kept the guests laughing throughout! I love that and the guests were delighted. The bride and groom are both attorneys and met at University of North Carolina law school in 2001 and that is why they wanted to have their ceremony here in NC.

One of the best parts of the ceremony was thanking their parents for "spending hours in the backyard playing catch with Ryan, to patiently responding to endless questions from a curious young Melanie, to going out of your way to attend countless soccer and volleyball games, and to perhaps the biggest sacrifice of them all, dog-sitting Maddox and Wrigley whenever Ryan and Melanie are out of town." They also included the story of how they met and ended with "It is only fitting that they stand before you today, seven years, two dogs, and one house later, just down the road from Chapel Hill, to take these vows of marriage."

After making their vows to each other and exchanging rings, we closed with the breaking of the glass and the pronouncement. And they swept down the aisle together as their guests stood and applauded. It was time to celebrate so all the guests departed for The Barn for the reception.

There were two couples there whom I had married. One was our DJ, Bill Smith, and his wife Sandra. I married them in February of 2008, saw them again at Sandra's sister's wedding this past March, and was so happy to see them again. Sandra told me that she loves to accompany Bill when he DJs a wedding because it is more "together time."

The other couple, Amy and Brent, I married in September of 2005. Melanie and Ryan attended their wedding in the Raleigh Rose Garden. Amy and Brent found me after this ceremony to say hello. I knew they were there but could not spot them during the ceremony. They said they were on the back row! It was so good to see them again after almost 4 years! They haven't changed a bit, just mellowed out with their happy marriage.











Here is our photographer, Kristin P. Oguntoyinbo, who founded KPO Photo "Storytellers with a Camera." I have worked many weddings with Kristin through the years and was delighted to work with her and her associates on this one. Always a pleasure. She puts up with Marty, my roadie, running around with my little digital camera snapping photos for this blog. Here she is in action and one Marty caught of her in mid-sentence! Here is a link to her slide show of this wedding!













I stopped by The Barn on my way out to get a look at the lovely wedding cake and all the beautiful florals. Fearrington's chef made this lovely cake and Fearrington has an in-house florist who does all the florals--in the garden and at the reception. It is a grand place for a celebration!




Melanie and Ryan, what a great wedding you created for yourselves and your guests! I am honored to have been a part of your special day. I know you two will have a great marriage!

Vendors:

Fearrington Country Inn--my thanks to Cheryl who was the wedding director for this wedding and so expertly kept everything flowing along and got the ceremony started on time. It was great meeting you for the first time and I look forward to doing many more weddings with you.

DJ--Bill Smith of Magic of Music and his wife and teammate, Sandra, providing wonderful music for weddings. Bill sings too!

Photographer: Kristin of KPO Photo "Storytellers with a Camera"