Raleigh Wedding Blog: Ali and Landon's Incredible Wedding at The State Club!

Ali and Landon's wedding ceremony "takes the cake" for the wedding with the most laughter of any other wedding I have had the privilege of officiating! And that is due in large part to their fun-loving personalities. I got to know them pretty well because they took my Marriage Optimization class. I loved teaching them about what to expect in marriage and answering their insightful questions. It was no surprise that they are very compatible and a great match.

Marty and I arrived on October 11th 2014 at The State Club to find Landon and his guys outside the club but there were no chairs set up for the ceremony. I found out they had checked the doppler for weather predictions for their start time of 5:30 that afternoon and spotted a very large dark cloud headed their way. So, they wisely "called" the wedding and moved the ceremony indoors. And it was a good thing because we found out later it started raining during the ceremony.

Best man Zach, Ali's brother, on the right, and one of our ushers relax before the ceremony. You can see their photographer, Cara, with f8 Studios and her second shooter in the background. Cara and I have done a lot of weddings together through the years.

View of the ballroom from the second level all decked out for the reception.

The room for the ceremony is ready to go!

Monica Noa with Nouveau Events has everything under control! Such a pleasure to work with her.

Such a pretty wedding cake by Edible Art!

A table full of photos of their parents' and grandparents' weddings and a headpiece from one of the brides.

Their guest book made with photos of their travels.

Engagement photo!

So the guests took their seats. It was a "kid-friendly" wedding and one of our small guests is having a great time already!

Monica has us all lined up beginning with the four grandparents. Mitch with Joe Bunn DJ Company is providing our music.

Landon and I in line waiting our turn to enter.

Andrea, Landon's sister, is Ali's Maid of Honor. Kelley with Teacup Floral provided the pretty flowers.

Ali's father, Rick, brings Ali in! That is Wendy, event manager for the Club, in the background.

Welcome to all, opening prayer and tribute to the parents first. Then a reading of "I Carry Your Heart With Me" by ee cumming was shared by Christy.

Then their story. What fun! The day they met is a clue to their fun personalities and why this ceremony was so funny. In 2009 they were with a gathering of mutual friends at the Flying Saucer, sitting at opposite ends of a table. Because neither was interested in the conversations around them, they amused themselves by making funny faces at each other. Eventually they got around to talking and getting to know each other. After a few months they began to hang out together and developed a close bond which blossomed into romance.

Ali was working on a horse farm and pursuing her master's degree at NCSU. Landon had recently gotten out of the military and was unemployed. When Ali graduated and got her first "real" job, not wanting to be a slacker, Landon got a job with a crane company which he soon discovered was not for him. He promptly quit and began pursuing a degree in electrical engineering and will graduate next May.

They love to travel. In fact, two months into their relationship they took an 8 day Caribbean cruise. Landon spent four months earlier this year on an internship in Switzerland and of course Ali went over to spend a few weeks with him so they could explore Europe together. In fact, they worked on putting the first draft of their ceremony together from my material while sitting in a beer garden overlooking Prague.

The proposal story was quite funny as Landon's proposal did not go as he had planned!

Whew, getting married is hard work, isn't it, Landon??

So, now for the secret paragraphs and their vows to each other.

The rings were exchanged, then a closing blessing.

Landon kept sniffing during the ceremony so I had to check to make sure everything was good for the kiss that was coming up after the pronouncement!

The pronouncement!

Off we go!

We gathered in the room where the groom and groomsmen and fathers hung out before the wedding. It was supplied with nerf guns (I think that is what they called them!) and so Ali and Landon had a good time playing with them as Cara and Marty got some good pictures of them. When all the guests had gone down into the lobby for cocktails, we returned to the ceremony room for photos.