Danielle and Emilio's Beautiful Wedding at Jones Chapel!

Danielle and Emilio relocated to North Carolina from New Jersey 5 years ago to begin a new life adventure together. Emilio is originally from El Salvador where his parents still live. Their love and devotion strengthened through the years and they decided to make it official and get married. They chose the date of July 7, 2012, exactly 5 years to the day that they moved to NC. They reserved the beautiful Jones Chapel on the Meredith College campus to celebrate their nuptials with a reception following at Embassy Suites in Cary. The wedding day was beautiful, but hot, and we were so grateful to Danielle and Emilio for choosing to have their wedding indoors inside this beautiful chapel.

They had a pretty platter for their guests to sign which will be fired again making the inscriptions permanent. A beautiful memento for this occasion.

Timothy Hendrix who teaches music at Meredith College was our musician for the wedding. For the prelude music he played the most divine selections and then for the processional and recessional he moved to the magnificent pipe organ.

Meanwhile, the men and I assembled back behind the altar area where I pinned on their boutonnieres as we awaiting the start of the ceremony.

After the guys and I entered from the altar door on the right, Danielle's grandmother, Janet, was escorted in followed by the sister of the groom, Arely, representing Emilio's parents who are in El Salvador, then mother of the bride, Bari. Our lovely bridesmaids entered next. Our directors were Melissa and Jennifer, cousins of the bride, who have obviously done this many times before as they were very organized and made sure everything went as planned. Melissa was back with the guys and me and Jennifer in the foyer with the bridal party. They cleverly used their cell phones to text back and forth to coordinate our entrances into the chapel. Thanks, ladies! It was a pleasure working with you.

Here comes the bride!

Emilio stepped down to take the hand of the bride from her father, Joseph.

Joseph carefully lifted the blusher veil then kissed Danielle and took his seat as the couple ascended the steps of the altar to join me.

Blusher veils are beautiful and traditional. It is important to make sure that the blusher veil is pulled back and arranged so that it does not block the view of the bride's face for the guests (and her photographer!). Danielle's veil was perfect! Our photographer for the wedding was Teresa Porter. The beautiful flowers were by Flowers on Broad Street in Fuquay-Varina. I want to credit and thank their DJ, Lenny Fritts, for sending this couple to me. I know they had a fabulous reception with Lenny in charge of the affair!

Our first reader was Danielle's Aunt Patty who read a poem "He Never Leaves the Toilet Seat Up" --quite humorous and she did a great job of presenting it.

Barbara, a close family friend, presented a reading from First Corinthians.

Then it was time to share the couple's story--how they met, what attracted them to each other, what they love about each other and why they want to marry. It seems that Emilio used to be a "club hopper" back in NJ but secretly wanted to find the woman who would settle him down. He met Danielle through her friend Ashley and his cousin Roni who knew each other. Danielle was taking a Spanish class and frequented Emilio's family's home so she could learn to speak Spanish fluently. Emilio found himself helping her with her homework more and more and decided he did not miss the clubs! Their friendship grew into love and they soon became a couple. The decision to move to North Carolina was a big move for them both and they have grown closer as a result. They are hoping that more family members will join them in NC! Emilio has started his own landscaping company in Holly Springs, Jersey Landscaping, and is delighted to see it grow and become successful with Danielle's help keeping the books and organizing the schedule.

Emilio places the ring on Danielle's finger.

Their sand ceremony included sand that represented their respective families as a foundation for their marriage. The sand representing Emilio's family had been brought from the beaches of El Salvador by his uncle. The sand representing Danielle's family heritage was from the beach at Cape May, NJ, where she spent many summers of her childhood on the Jersey Shore. Danielle's mother, Bari, poured her family's sand and Emilio's sister, Arely, poured for Emilio' family.