October 28, 2020 | Posted by belties

Amanda and Jordan tied the knot in February, but we thought now might be a good time to share their story as we get ready for the winter months. Even with cooler temperatures, the gardens made the perfect backdrop to their most special day. Oh, and we think you’ll get a kick out of their engagement story:)

How did you and your partner meet?
In 2016, Amanda was over graduate school and decided to defend her Master’s thesis and find a job in industry. She applied for a job at a clinical research company, and was scheduled for an in person interview. Amanda was given a list of interviewers; little did she know that one of her interviewers would end up as her future husband!

Jordan was the second interviewer of four. He of course asked the interview questions, after we got off topic talking about how some of his family had gone to UF (Amanda’s alma mater, on her resume), and how much we both liked college football. After the 30 minute interview, we shook hands and went our separate ways.

Spoiler alert: Amanda got the job. One day, Amanda was reviewing a document on her computer that happened to have an organic molecule on it, when Jordan walked behind her cube. Amanda had no idea at the time, but Jordan saw that organic molecule and decided that was the day he was going to draw a perfect benzene ring.

He IM’d her later on mentioning that he’d been trying to draw benzene for the past 30 mins and still hadn’t managed to draw the perfect ring. Even though he still didn’t get that nice looking benzene drawn, it started us talking. We decided we should hang out one weekend – obviously there was some chemistry (pun intended).

Tell us about the engagement.
One day in Aug 2018, Jordan booked a few reservation slots for Victoria & Albert’s, an amazing, five star restaurant located in Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort. He booked it right around Valentine’s Day – 09 Feb 2019. After he booked the date, we decided to stay at the Grand Floridian as well – why not? We booked our flights so we would fly out Friday, 08 Feb, and come back on Monday, 11 Feb. It was going to be a great Valentine’s Day celebration!  Amanda had no idea Jordan was actually going to propose that weekend.

Off to a great start as always, our flight was late flying from Raleigh to Orlando on 08 Feb. We ended up on another flight to Orlando (that was supposed to leave 4 hours earlier – toilet issues kept the plane grounded…), and managed to finally land about an hour later than we were supposed to. We had dinner reservations at Epcot that night, so the original plan was to change, walk around the Grand Floridian for a bit, then head on over.

Check in took a bit longer than usual; we had a cast member checking us in who was “earning her ears”. She also noted in the computer that we had a gift basket waiting for us, so she had the bell boy bring it out. Out came this lovely basket which had a big “Congrats” balloon tied to it from Jordan’s family. Both of us were a little confused (Amanda probably more so than Jordan), but Jordan managed to play it off well. Amanda was still none the wiser (honestly she thought that maybe Jordan’s family thought they were doing another half marathon that weekend). As they were walking out to the room, the bell boy asked what we were celebrating. At that point, Jordan was in no mood to humor him and basically said we were celebrating being off from work, while gently pushing me out the door before someone else tried to give away the surprise.

We changed and got ready to go to dinner. Amanda was concerned there wasn’t enough time to walk around the resort, but Jordan was very insistent. So, we walked out of the room and started to head towards the water, where we could see Space Mountain and the castle from across the lagoon. Before Amanda could process what was happening, Jordan was down on one knee with the most beautiful ring she had ever seen, asking her to marry him. There was a lot of blubbering, some thank yous, and finally a YES!

What made Fearrington the place for you to say “I do?”
Honestly, we both fell in love with Fearrington from the minute we saw the cows, the Barn all dressed up, and spoke to Gilda. Out of all the wedding venues we looked at, Fearrington was the only one where we could actually picture ourselves standing in front of the fireplace in the Garden Terrace getting married, and dancing the night away in the Barn. It’s so peaceful and beautiful, and Fearrington has that special something that no place else has.

Describe the highlight moment of your wedding day.
Honestly, it’s hard to pick just one! Finally getting to see Jordan during our first look was a major highlight. We hadn’t seen each other since the rehearsal dinner the night before, and finally getting to see him all dressed up in his tux, and me in my dress, was really emotional in a good way. Finally getting married in front of our family and friends, after about a year long engagement, was another super emotional highlight. Nailing our first dance after a few months pf practice was an awesome highlight. And lastly – seeing everyone have SO MUCH fun at the reception! We were told by quite a few people that this was the best wedding they’d been to.

What was the biggest surprise of the day?
Good surprise or bad surprise?

Bad surprise – the bride waking up with a horribly sore throat and coughing all wedding day! Fortunately Amanda kept it together during the ceremony with the help of a lot of cough drops.

Good surprise – Seeing everything finally put together in the Garden Terrace and the Barn. You plan a wedding for so long, and it becomes a series of decision after decision, without much idea of how everything will actually look put together. Seeing the Garden Terrace and Barn put together exactly how we wanted was an amazing surprise. We knew we were in good hands with the Fearrington team, but still – it was absolutely breathtaking.

What was your biggest surprise about wedding planning?
How much time it takes and how much there is to communicate with everyone, especially once you’re close to the wedding date! Although Gilda and her team were absolute lifesavers with planning everything at Fearrington.

Anything you want to add about your wedding story?
Our wedding day was truly one of the best days of our lives, and we thank all the vendors and Gilda’s team at Fearrington for helping us make memories to last forever. One hundred plus days down of marriage, a lifetime to go!

Photographs: Krystal Kast Photography
Venue: The Fearrington House
Flowers: Fearrington Village
Cake and Catering: The Fearrington House