©Channing Johnson Photography
Dream Weddings Go Local
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There’s no stopping love. World-wide pandemic or not, we are living love with our family, friends, and community. We are taking care of ourselves and helping others in whatever ways that we can. We might be staying local and keeping six feet apart, but we’re grabbing those lemons, making lemonade, and embracing the surprising sweetnesses of this time. And there’s no stopping weddings. Because we are falling in love! Although family gatherings may look different this year, the winter holiday season remains a perfect time to get engaged, share the news, and start planning the wedding day. Social gatherings are a whole new universe. With no true sense of when life may get back to the way we knew it, there may be limits on travel, size, or venue, but there are no limits on creativity. And, 56
Discover CONCORD
| Winter 2020
happily, we live in one of the most beautiful – and creative – places in the world. Area couples are rising to the challenge, discovering everything this area has to offer, and planning micro weddings and minimonies to treasure for a lifetime. Jennifer Eaton, owner of locally-owned Copper Penny Flowers floral and event boutique, remembers the first bride that had to rework all her wedding plans because of the pandemic. “At the last minute, we had to change our pre-wedding appointment to Zoom which meant I had to scramble to figure out how to meet with the bride using my computer. I put the sample centerpiece we had made for her wedding—a blush and burgundy design with peonies and lisianthus—in front of my computer screen, and the bride burst into tears! I think she already realized she
couldn’t do the wedding as she’d planned. Within four days, her original wedding was cancelled.” But the story didn’t end there. The bride scaled back and celebrated a once-in-a-lifetime event at her original location, a nearby historic mansion. There may have been fewer than two dozen guests, all socially distanced, but her wedding was as magical as she had hoped. A highlight? “The most gorgeous flowers I’ve ever seen at my ceremony-only wedding!”
©Jenny Edwards Photography
BY BEVERLY BRETON CARROLL
