Magnolia House & Garden Wedding

I received the phone call on a Thursday night. “I know we’re supposed to be getting married in a few weeks, but we’ve decided to throw together a last minute wedding this Saturday instead. Can you still be our photographer?”

I’ve known Maddie for almost a decade. She was a freshman in my honors geometry class the first year that I taught, and over the years I have watched her grow into a joyful, steadfast woman. “I’ll be there,” I said with a smile, and 36 hours later these two were married.

There was a time when Maddie insisted that she and Cory would never date. “It’s not like that,” she’d say anytime someone brought him up. “We’re just friends.” Friends who laughed like crazy together. Friends who went to the same out of state university where he played college football and she cheered. The basic details of their love story read like a small town American fairy tale.

But there is so much more to them than that. Both are people of deep, abiding faith. Both share a joy and a foundation that is unshakable. And when COVID-19 interrupted their dream wedding plans, they chose to sacrifice their plans so that they could get married as soon as possible.

The exchanged vows in an intimate ceremony at an open air chapel in Jonesboro, and they shared their first dance at the Magnolia House and Garden. It wasn’t the day they had dreamed of, but it was the day they chose each other forever, and it was absolutely beautiful.