Real Weddings
Miranda & David
Miranda & David tied the knot on November 5, 2017. These newlyweds said their “I do”s under the Jenny’s Garden and danced the night away in The Barn!
How did you and your partner meet?
We met online, in November 2016, via Match.com. A sign of the times, perhaps, but it worked! Our first date was on a Monday evening, just drinks after work, and before we even said goodnight on the first date we scheduled a follow-up dinner date for a few days later. We think it’s fair to say that by Christmastime we were already confident we’d be together the rest of our lives.
Tell us about the engagement?
David proposed in mid-August, at Artisanal near Banner Elk, NC. Miranda didn’t know that this was “the night” but she did admit later that she had thought in advance that it would be an awfully good night to get engaged. After dinner but before dessert, David invited Miranda to go for a stroll down a little path in the woods behind the restaurant and David proposed at a beautiful clearing overlooking the stream. We promptly broke the news to Olivia, David’s fourteen-year-old daughter, and called our families.
What made Fearrington the place for you to say “I do?’
We knew that we wanted to get married as soon as possible and we liked the idea that we might be able to make it official on or around the one-year anniversary of our first date. But because of the short notice, finding a venue wasn’t easy and we were feeling a little stumped as to what to do. What we did know is that we wanted the venue to be intimate and special enough for a very small family wedding ceremony, but also festive and large enough to pull off a much larger up-scale reception and full dinner.
A few weeks later, in early September, Miranda took David for dinner and an overnight at Fearrington to celebrate his 50th birthday and David asked Miranda if, while they were there, she might consider looking at The Barn as a possible wedding venue. Miranda took two or three steps into The Barn, stopped in her tracks and said “this is it.”
We found an available Sunday about sixty days out, and Gilda famously said “I could plan this wedding in an hour if you’d let me,” and we knew you were our kind of wedding director! In hindsight, putting the whole thing together in sixty days was a bit breathtaking (especially in terms of getting our list together and invitations out the door) but with your expert guidance and recommendations it all fell into place. From cake and flowers to decor and dinner, Fearrington made everything so beautiful and so easy on us.
Describe the highlight moment of your wedding day.
The day turned out so perfectly it’s truly hard to highlight only one moment. We knew that planning for an outdoor wedding in early November was pushing our luck, but Mother Nature smiled on us and it was warm that weekend and the skies cleared just a few hours before the ceremony, allowing us to have the ceremony and cocktails outside, which we had hoped for very much. The family gathered for the ceremony in the garden at 4:00pm and David will never forget the moment when Miranda made her entrance and he saw her for the first time in her wedding dress. We were married with David’s daughter standing with him, and a monarch butterfly must have enjoyed the solo cellist (Bonnie Thron, the principal cellist of the North Carolina Symphony) as it was fluttering around for much of the time. After the ceremony we had just enough time for Krystal Kast to take formal photos of the family and at 6:00pm the party began. Much to our surprise, at least half of our 160 guests were already there when we made our entrance.
What was the biggest surprise of the day?
David did have one surprise for Miranda at the reception, as he had asked the band (an eleven-piece “little big band” assembled by Duke’s John Brown) to learn the University of Alabama Crimson Tide fight song. We had a good number of Alabama guests and fans with us that night and we enjoyed a rousing version of Yea Alabama, as David was not only marrying Miranda that night but also marrying into Crimson Tide football.
Anything you want to add about your wedding story?
Of course, in the end it was David’s daughter who managed to steal the show. Olivia made the official toast before guests sat for dinner. There weren’t a lot of dry eyes in the house as she described being there “almost from the very beginning” and knowing we were perfect for each other. She confessed she had started a wedding planning binder and pinning wedding items on Pinterest long before we had told her we planned to marry.
It truly was our perfect day and we’re deeply grateful to Gilda for her incredible recommendations and guidance she gave us early on in the process and for the precision and perfection in making everything happen on the big day.
This wedding was designed and coordinated by Fearrington’s own Gilda McDaniel. Photography by Krystal Kast Photography.