Wedding Spotlight:

Jill & Eric

Eric and I met on a pier in Nassau.  We were on separate cruise ships with our children but were going on the same boat excursion. We struck up a conversation and he told me that he would soon be visiting New Orleans for a business trip, which is where I was living at the time. Eric was living in Charlotte, North Carolina. We met again six weeks later on Saturday July 16th, 2005, and soon began to spend a lot of time on the phone getting to know each other. On Thursday August 25th, we had our first date, which turned out to be amazing! 

The next day, I worked a 24-hour shift at the hospital but when I got home Saturday morning I received news  that hurricane Katrina was headed straight for New Orleans. I drove to get Eric at his downtown hotel and he came to my house to help board up and prepare for the storm.  We both evacuated Sunday morning; Eric went to Charlotte and I stayed with family in Pensacola. 

Eric proposed the next summer and we set our wedding date for April 21st, 2007. Luckily I found Brenda Carraway, owner of The Bridal Loft, who guided me to my beautiful wedding dress. I decided on red and white for our wedding colors. Red roses, for true love, and white lilies, for new beginning, were our theme flowers.  Eric’s daughter and son and my two daughters stood up for us as our wedding party.  The girls wore red dresses, as did the mothers.  The boys wore all black tuxes with red bowties. 

Our minister from our Methodist church performed the ceremony at the Old Christ Church, which reminded me of New Orleans. After we said our vows, we each poured sand into a large vase to signify the blending of our families.  We wanted the children to feel as included as possible.

Our reception was held at Jackson’s restaurant, and we left the next morning for our week-long honeymoon in St. John’s.

Eric and I both feel our chance meeting was somehow predetermined, and we are amazed at our compatibility with each other.  We have very similar beliefs, ideas, parenting ideals, and most of all, we share a zest for life.  We had a perfect wedding for us and our newly blended families.