There are two things I loved about the ending of Amanda and Brad’s wedding, at the stately Ford Plantation in Savannah, Georgia.
First of all, at the end of the night couples usually exit OUT of the venue and into a waiting car. Their guests lined up along the front walkway of the house, and Amanda and Brad came at them from the opposite direction, running through a canopy of sparklers INTO the house, totally surprising everyone. They climbed the grand staircase, and resurfaced on the balcony of the top floor, waving to everyone. That was a first for me. But it also just made sense, as they were spending their wedding night in the plantation house.
The rest of us boarded shuttles to go back into Savannah where all our hotels were. As everyone talked and laughed, sleepily sharing memories of the day, Amanda’s sister Constance suddenly thrust her phone into the air and we saw that she was FaceTiming. With Amanda. “Shouldn’t she be….?” we all wondered.
“Brad couldn’t get my dress off because there were a million buttons,” Amanda told me recently. “Constance had said earlier in the day that Brad was going to be so mad that there were so many buttons. So Brad wanted to call her and tell her she was right.” And there it is.
This is a family we have loved since Constance and Mike’s Santa Fe wedding at Encantado Resort in 2008. Incidentally, that was right around the time Amanda and Brad met. But they were just friends, and it would be a while before they started dating. Constance and Mike now have three adorable children. And Constance and Amanda’s parents remain the brightest, most loving parents anyone could hope to have. This is a tight-knit family, which is easy to see in the photos. Their love for one another is inspiring.
One of Amanda and Brad’s favorite memories from their wedding is one of those moments you don’t even realize is a big deal at the time. They were both on the dance floor, and met eyes. “We both had a moment together that was so emotional, but no words were spoken,” Amanda said. After the sparkler exit, when they went upstairs to go to bed, they talked about it and realized they had both been feeling the exact same thing. “We just felt pure love from everyone around us,” she said. “It was the craziest, most awesome feeling in the world.”