Real Richmond Wedding: Shannon and Brandon at Seven Springs

Shannon and Brandon
September 9, 2017

How They Met
Shannon and Brandon met during Brandon’s senior year of high school in 2003. Shannon, who had already graduated, came back from the annual step show. Brandon’s high school nearly won but lost due to a technicality. Shannon explains, “After the show, I sought him out and wanted to let him know that I thought they should have won.”

Fast forward to nine years later, when their paths would cross again, but this time randomly on Twitter during a discussion about which high school had the dominant step team. “Brandon took the opportunity to spark a private conversation, leading off with ‘You’re interesting to me.'” They chatted back and forth, immediately recognizing the chemistry between them. They set up a time to FaceTime and ended up talking for hours. It was love at first step.

The Proposal
Brandon asked Shannon to be his wife on December 5, 2015, during a desert safari in Dubai. “After a day of feeding camels and riding the sand dunes, we arrived at the camp for dinner. It was getting pretty late, so the sun began to set.” Brandon knew how much Shannon loved sunsets, so he asked her if she wanted to take pictures. She ran to grab her phone and started up the dunes for the perfect shot. “I tried to take a few pictures of him, but he was acting weird, so I asked him to take a few shots of me.” As Shannon was looking at the pictures she heard Brandon say behind her, “And I really love you.” She turned around and saw him reaching in his pocket. “My first thought was that he was joking, but when I saw the box, I knew it was real.” From what Shannon can remember, Brandon asked her to marry him and she said, “Absolutely.”

The Details
“I’m not the typical bride that has dreams of walking down the aisle in a white dress, but I did know that I wanted to have an outside wedding under some sort of tent.” They went to multiple venues, and since the two are RVA locals, they wanted something unique and that they’ve never seen before. “I found Seven Springs online and as soon as I saw the photos, I fell in love.”

The two decided on their wedding date just moments after Shannon said yes in Dubai. They both wanted to have an evening wedding and played with the idea of their guests wearing black and white. “We loved the idea to play on art deco shapes…We wanted our wedding to be elegant and unique.”

Their colors were perfectly classic with emerald green, gold, black, and white. “Green is my favorite color and I love the richness against gold.”Their selections of wedding party attire, while a little unconventional, was reflective of the newlywed’s style.

The ceremony was unplugged so that each guest would be completely present during their big moment.

For their florals, they used beautiful pieces of garland and small white flowers to give their reception a sense of romance. With the family style seating, they created an atmosphere full of love. “We bought hexagon marble tiles and handmade each name card with caligraphy gold names.” They also used moss-covered hexagons for their table numbers, continuing their theme of art deco shapes.

Favorite Part of the Day
“We both loved the vows that we wrote to each other.”

Biggest Challenge
“Sticking to a budget! Weddings are expensive and it’s easy to go outside of your budget. ”

Best Piece of Advice
“Don’t stress. Work together. Have no regrets. Do what’s important to you and enjoy every moment. Also, we would suggest not going on your honeymoon immediately, wait a few weeks!”

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