Weddingbee bios

We're small-town folks who love the Blue Ridge Mountains of NC, which we call home. We were both raised in mountain families and went to middle school and high school together before going off to different colleges. When we started hanging out together again when we both moved back to our hometown, we began to realize how many geeky things we'd fallen in love with in college that tied us together. World of Warcraft? Yes! D&D? Yes! Various and sundry fantasy novels? Yes!

Soon, we realized that we'd found more than someone to run dungeons with in Azeroth -- we'd found love :)

I'm Meredith, now using my MSLS degree in a rural public library by day and cooking up messes of beans and playing a Blood Elf rogue by night.

My fiance, Johnny, is the layout/production manager at our hometown newspaper, who can do about anything on a PS3 and can do more to fix computers than turn them on and off again.

Johnny and I knew each other growing up -- we went to middle school and high school together and moved in the same circles of friends, but those were the days when I was shy and wore combat boots.

Our interest was sparked in each other when we both ended up working for the same company, our hometown newspaper, after going off to separate colleges and coming home to our beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. Johnny was delivering newspapers part time when I applied for a job as a reporter -- and his recommendation of me helped me get the job!

We hung out at work during down-time, and I started reconnecting with the circle of friends I'd missed since high school. Johnny and I also started realizing how many geeky passions we had in common, and the rest is history!

Johnny proposed to me on our one-year anniversary, October 16, 2010. I had no idea he'd been planning to propose! We'd been talking for about five months about getting married and knew that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together -- little did I know that that whole time, he'd been planning, and pretty much everyone in the whole county knew... except me. It was truly a surprise!

The morning of our anniversary, I woke up to a clue that started me on a scavenger hunt. A sweet letter with a clue led me to my Mom's house... then to the newspaper office where we'd worked together for a year... then to his parents' house... each new letter told me something he loved about me and about our relationship. I kept tearing up each time I'd read one.

One clue led me to Johnny's house, where he had a picnic lunch packed and waiting for me, and we got in the car. We drove to the next stop -- an overlook on the top of Grandfather Mountain. It was a gorgeous fall day and there was a long line of people waiting to drive into the park, but Johnny seemed to really want to go there... little did I know why...

We ate our lunch at the overlook, and Johnny gave me the next clue when we got back in his car to escape the wind. It was inside a leatherbound copy of my favorite book, The Lord of the Rings! The clue talked about the meaning behind rings and how one ring changed the lives of many people in the book... and the letter ended by saying he had a question for me.

Tucked inside the book's casing was a ring, and Johnny asked me if I would be his wife -- and I said yes, yes, yes :)

Our friend and budding photographer Stacy Duncan of Stacy Duncan Photography took our engagement pictures for us. Here's a sampling...

My six bridesmaids wore various David's Bridal short styles in Latte and coral pashminas from LaPurse (and picked their own fabulous shoes!)

Our six groomsmen wore tuxes from Men's Wearhouse with Herringbone Latte vest ensembles.

Stephanie and Rocky, flower girls extraordinaire! They wore dusty rose dresses from EliteDresses.com and ballet shoes from Target.

A guild tabard for all my husband's WoW-guildies, a compass rose for our history buff friend, and Batman and the Green Lantern for our Best Man :D

Here's my inspiration board for our October wedding. Our venue has lots of medium-toned wood, burgundy, and blue, so I wanted colors that would go with those rather than traditionally seasonal fall colors.

I wore my hair half-up in loose curls, held back with a barette made from an antique spoon by BentSpoonJewelry on Etsy.

I made around 100 fabric flowers using Mrs Locket's tutorials for our bridesmaids' bouquets and mine - and I LOVED the way they turned out!

And mine, held by a flower girl :)

We used my Granny and Great-Aunt's mason jars and my Mom's homemade tealights for our centerpieces.

My husband's family makes apple butter every fall, so we helped make an extra round this year to give for favors. We packed it in 4 oz. jars, printed kraft paper labels, and set them in one of my Granny's old washtubs. I used IJustRockOut's idea for leftover mason jar lids to make the Thank You sign!

Some of my favorite pictures from the ceremony.

In the church fellowship hall.

My Mom and her cousin made our wedding cake for us. It was tiramisu-flavored, with buttercream icing, and silver dragees. Our cakestand was made by BraggingBags from Etsy.