Stories of love

Courtney & Tyler’s Story

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Courtney and Tyler have had quite the roller coaster to reschedule their wedding just two weeks before their big day! We got a chance to hear all the details and their experience having a wedding amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

 

Courtney & Tyler’s Story

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Just as we were getting excited to enjoy our big day, we found out we had to reschedule our wedding due to COVID-19. We were just two weeks out when we had to change our date. Tyler is big into hunting and I am not big into winter weddings, so our options for rescheduling were limited. We chose August 29th because we were also coordinating with 23 other weddings we were going to and a part of, so we had to make sure we didn’t overlap with those. 

Tyler and I met through mutual friends. One of my best friends (Lauren), and I were in college. I was going to Tarleton and he was going to Kingsville. Lauren owned property that had two houses, and his best friend was renting one of them. Tyler would come to his friend’s house to go hunting all the time. Our paths never really crossed, but his friend Colton kept saying “you two need to meet, you would be perfect for each other.”  And we both kept saying “yeah whatever Colton…” 

Colton one day said to me “by the way Tyler is coming into town again and I am going to set ya’ll up to meet each other.” I told him no. Tyler will tell you that when I saw him pulling down the driveway through the kitchen window I ran down the hall to Lauren saying “oh my gosh, that’s the guy I am supposed to meet, what am I going to do, they are all coming here!” That night we stayed out till 3 am just talking to each other and from there we learned we both love the outdoors, and that we clicked in most of our hobbies. We started dating Mary of 2015. 

When we first started dating, we were long-distance, which we weren’t excited about. We had a lot of friends who would break up and get back together and early on we decided that wasn’t us. Since that decision, we’ve never broken up. We don’t go to bed mad and we support each other through everything. He always has a hunting partner and I always have a shopping partner – which is not his favorite thing to do but he does it so we can be together and laugh together. 

Our proposal fit the two of us perfectly. Tyler and I would go hunting together often and he was into pig hunting. One day we went out shooting together and headed to lunch after. After lunch, we headed out to a property we call “Mr. Cotton’s”. There is an overlook of the river there that I love. As we were walking along, Tyler said “I think there’s a pig over here… if there is, you should shoot it.” I said ok and started looking. The sun was setting and shining right in my eyes, so I had to really look hard. I told him “I can’t see it! Just do it for me!” I turned around and he was on one knee! He says “jokes on you there’s no pig!” and asks me to marry him. 

March 28th was the first date we selected. We were doing the last meeting two weeks before our big day with our vendors when we had the realization we might have to move our wedding due to COVID-19. Our vendors were amazing through this difficult decision and assured us they were ready to do whatever was needed to make sure it happened. We decided to move the date and we are so thankful for our vendors and their help. We looked to our parents for advice and they were kind enough to defer to our judgment. 

 

 

They offered perspectives but did not tell us what to do. Tyler and I decided between ourselves that we would move it. I narrowed it down to August 8th or August 29th. Our vendors all could move to August 29th, and after consulting my sister, we chose the 29th. I was so glad to have someone help me decide the date easily.

It was rather unique postponing our wedding. Everything was already planned since we were supposed to be married in March. Once we got close to August 29th, things just continued pretty seamlessly. The only major change was that we had to get an “outdoor gathering permit” for having over 100 people. We also had to adjust our guest list. Our original guest list was 335 people and we had to cut it down to 200. It was really hard to choose who could come and who couldn’t. A good portion of Tyler’s family is doctors out of state, which meant their hospitals wouldn’t let them leave to come to the wedding. This was completely understandable but hard for us. It was hard to picture our wedding day without a lot of his family.

We had a lot of people cut themselves from the list because they didn’t want to be exposed and a lot of people offered their seats to make sure that if someone needed to be there they could be. Overall, everyone was very supportive, and no one was really negative. We got the list down to 250 people, and then it got even harder. I can’t tell you it was exactly 200 people there, it might have been a little over. You try your best to contact everyone, but that’s a lot of people to contact.

All the hard work of rescheduling our wedding, contacting everyone, cutting down our guest list, and coordinating all the vendors was all worth it because our wedding day was absolutely perfect!

Our colors were navy, coral, and grey. The guys were in white shirts and jackets with jeans. I felt bad about the jackets since August in Texas is HOT! But Tyler loved the look, so the guy’s dealt with it great.  

We got married in a rustic barn. We could only have 90 people in the barn so we had to get creative on making space for everyone to be able to see our ceremony.

During our planning, one thing Tyler was adamant about was that the first look is down the aisle. I also wanted to have a first look with my dad before the wedding. It was such an incredible and special moment!

At the end of it all, to be together with family and friends and to feel that atmosphere of love and support amidst everything that had been going on already in the year was amazing.

The most challenging part about planning our wedding was definitely that guest list. The best part was planning the gifts for the bridesmaids and groomsmen. The compassion they had for us was astounding and being able to show our gratitude to them was special. Also working with Kaitlin, our photographer, was a dream. Knowing I had her alongside me to make sure we had the best day, and that she would be capturing it all with incredible pictures was absolutely key.

Having gone through planning my wedding, I encourage other brides to incorporate your other half in the planning. He has more opinions then he may show! Make sure you work together and see what matters to them too. No matter how much they say “it’s your day”, it’s their day too, and planning it together is a great way to start your marriage. Also – book Kaitlin for your wedding!