Alright I know many have been wondering what the story was for us to elope so quickly!
If you are new to my website this ,is my story with my husband. We have been dating since we were 12 years old! Yes, that means middle school sweethearts. I thought I was the coolest girl in the school for dating the star quarterback. I even tried out for the cheer squad because I thought I would need to, if I dated a football player. Unfortunately, I could not do a back handspring so I did not make the team.
Alright on to the story!
We have been planing the right time to get married ever since he got the news that his active duty paperwork went through and he was being stationed at Ft. Bragg. We decided that we wanted to spend this next year together rather than doing long distance yet again. “Why not” was our attitude. So, we planned on going to the courthouse in Huntsville, Al and inviting our families to my childhood home to celebrate over Easter weekend. I have always wanted a wedding to be able to celebrate with all of the people that we care about. To wear the white dress and have those photos and memories with everyone I love; but God had other plans. If you are military you understand that marriage makes things easier for a solider and we thought it would be ridiculous to wait more than a year for me to be with him! We wanted to live together but we needed to be married first before we would take that step. (For religious reasons and for military reasons) So that was the plan and I was SO excited I started looking at dresses and what food we would order for our little family party.
Well as all of you know, COVID-19 hit and it hit hard. Military started to put restrictions on their soldiers for obvious reasons. So we decided to speed things up before it got even worse and all of the states and businesses shut down. I was driving back from the beach when we decided that I needed to leave the next day. So I got to my apartment packed up what I could bring and drove to my parents house 2 hours away to get important documents. The next day I went to him in North Carolina.
We went to a courthouse as soon as we could make an appointment. On March 23rd, we went in and talked to the ladies working through a glass window and signed our marriage license! We then went across the street where we waited for our two witnesses to show up. These witnesses were Conner’s new friends from his unit that he had met in February. I met them that day as we were walking in to get Conner and I married. It was really funny to me that these guys that just met me had to say I wasn’t crazy and was in the right mind to get married! (glad they said yes!) In Fayetteville people elope is at the Criminal Detention Center. I know, I know, TERRIBLE! I tried to look for some of the services that they have here for a small outside elopement but they were all closed. So we went to the detention center and put our phones up, went through a metal detector, and then had our temperatures taken. I was pleased to know that they do not do weddings from behind bullet proof glass anymore like I had read about. A sweet man married us in what looked like a super tiny courtroom. (No photos inside) He explained to us that because Fayetteville is a city of love, the city did not want to restrict anyone on the times that they could get married and that was the only building that was federally owned and open 24/7. Although we had heard if you ask really nicely they take you outside to get married. But because of COVID-19, that was not an option. So one of our witnesses pretended to marry us for a photo.
We had waited 8 years for that moment and I couldn’t believe it was happening. A few days later we signed on an apartment and moved into a cute little one bedroom apartment near the base. Since school was officially online for the rest of the semester and summer we decided it was best for me to just stay here!.Luckily we got most of my stuff up here and bought most of the big furniture here!
So here I am, in a brand new place on lockdown with my brand new husband! Although not being able to go anywhere, I am happy to report that we have been able to spend this time quiet together. I would still like to have that wedding and we are planning on it currently so let me know what your tips and tricks are for a budget wedding! We also still want to be able to go on a real honeymoon. Although we love spending time with each other during this time, it is not the honeymoon we dreamed of! 🙂
Thank you for reading all the way through if you got this far!
This is our story!
If you are wondering, I took these photos on a self timer in the back of one of the Airbnb’s we stayed at. (Pictured below) Both places we stayed at here we highly recommend, and they were so excited to hear our story!
