Personal Wedding Stories from our Brides and Grooms

By: Lindsay Graham -  Despite a stormy beginning, Michael and Lindsay Grahams marriage is running smoothly. That’s how the lifestyles editor at my hometown newspaper wanted to begin my marriage announcement. Unfortunately, she was being quite literal. It rained during my outdoor wedding. There I was standing in my wedding gown, looking like a princess in a white A-line dress complete with a satin corset bodice and a full skirt encrusted with shining pearls and sequins over a lace motif. Two miniature versions of me carried my four-foot chapel train, which also sported appliqué decorations. And it was raining. This was supposed to be the most wonderful day of my life, but it was raining. The actual downpour didn’t begin until the moment my husband and I said our I Dos. Some comedians in the audience called it a sign. I was tempted to give them a sign that was not very ladylike. Cruel jokes were not the worst part of the rain, however. It was that I had declined to rent …

By: Margarita Shafiro -  Victor was born in Athens, Greece (his mother is Russian who grew up in Philadelphia, PA and his father is Greek). He moved to the U.S. when he was four years of age. He grew up in Philadelphia, PA. Margarita was born in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. She grew up in a town on the Black Sea called Novorossyisk, Russia. She came to the U.S. to go to school 6 years ago, when she was 21 years of age. How We Met: Margarita (Maggie) was working on her Master's degree in Psychology at Wake Forest University, when she saw a Russian department in the same building psychology was in. She decided to stop by and see if they have Russian books. The secretary in the department asked Maggie if she was interested in tutoring a two-year old little girl in Russian. Apparently, Mimi's parents (little girl's name) called the Russian department that day asking if they could recommend a student who would tutor their daughter in Russian. Maggie started seeing…

By: Heather Schirtzinger -  Deciding on a flower girl was one of the hardest things for my fiancé and me. One evening we sat down and thought about all of the children in our families. It took us about an hour to finally decide and then we made the call. Keep in mind this little girl (Kennedy) is seven years old and it's known to me that she adores me. She tells her mom that she looks just like me. So on with the story, I called her house and Kennedy answered the phone, "Hello, Kennedy, this is Heather. May I please speak with your mom?" I wanted to ask her mother first just in case she wasn't allowed, before I asked the girl and got her hopes up and then we'd have to break the bad news to her. Her mother answered and gave me permission to ask Kennedy. "Hello?" Kennedy said. "Kennedy, you know I'm getting married in September, right?" "Yeah" as she giggled. "Well, I'm calling to see what you thought about being my flower girl?" A huge gasp comes out of her followin…

By: Jacquie LeRoy -  One year ago, I was selected to attend pilot training for the Air Force after I commission as an officer. Wanting to do very well in pilot training, I began picking the brains of Air Force pilots. A few months ago (Jan 14, to be exact) I decided to do a web search specifically for pilots of a certain type of aircraft that I once flew on while I was enlisted. I was hoping to get some inside information on how to be assigned to that particular aircraft straight out of pilot training. I found this pilot, John, whose screen name contained the name of that aircraft. He was online at the time so, thinking that he might have some answers for me, I sent him an instant message asking if it was safe to assume that he flies that type of aircraft. He said that he had actually completed pilot training years before this aircraft had even been developed, but his unit was just now in the process of transitioning to that airplane. Even though he couldn't really answer an…