Real Weddings Magazine - Summer/Fall 2018

eal weddings
LESLIE & JEREMY
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DANIELLE ALYSSE PHOTOGRAPHY
Leslie and Jeremy met during Air Force ROTC
in college. Their first date was kayaking on the
lake, and their first several years together as a
couple were spent backpacking, camping, hiking,
shooting and biking. They bonded over the
same interests. “It just turned into true love,” says
Leslie. Jeremy was attracted to Leslie’s values
and morals. “We get along really well. She’s a
very down-to-earth person,” Jeremy says. “And
of course, she’s beautiful.”
Jeremy called beforehand to ask Leslie’s
dad’s permission to propose to Leslie. On Christmas
Day, Leslie had dinner with her parents, and
drove over to spend some time with Jeremy
and his parents. As arranged, Leslie’s parents
knocked on Jeremy’s door about half an hour
after Leslie arrived. “I was so surprised to see
them,” Leslie says. “Then I turned around to look
at Jeremy, and there he was on one knee.”
They waited to start planning the wedding
until they found the perfect day for the ceremony.
They were apart for awhile with Jeremy
in the Air Force and Leslie going to physical
therapy school. “We had this two week, three
week span of when I can move, we can get married,
we can go on a honeymoon and then get
him ready to go off to Air Force Officer training
school,” Leslie says.
With the wedding date decided, they faced
eight months of straight planning. Jeremy had
given Leslie a promise ring while they were dating
and it was important to Leslie for that to be
her wedding band. They had her engagement
ring customized to make a matched set. Jeremy
made the signs and all the woodwork for their
wedding, and even made his own ring in Japanese
mokume-gane style. “There are people
who buy them and people who make them,”
Jeremy says. “I just used my hands-on skills and
a little common sense from my degree and just
made it happen.”
Their chosen venue was a mountain resort
at over 7,000 feet. They planned to have their
ceremony on a rocky outcrop overlooking the
mountains, and on the morning of the wedding,
the bridal party gathered at that spot for pre-ceremony
photos. But plans for the warm August
day drastically changed when the temperature
suddenly dropped. “The clouds were rolling in,
it was black, and you could hear thunder and
lightning in the distance,” Leslie says. A hailstorm
had already reached the lodge.
Jeremy told Leslie they would move the ceremony
to the lodge. “I just sat in the tent,” Leslie
says. “The coordinator was carrying things to the
car to go back to the lodge, but I’m not doing
anything; I’m having my bridezilla moment.”
Practicality set in and Leslie realized that an
outdoor ceremony in a hailstorm might not be
the best situation. They already had their photos
at the scenic point, and many guests took videos
of the drive back to the lodge, crunching over
inches of hailstones. “It really made it a very
mystical kind of experience,” Jeremy says. “It’s
really unique to the high Sierra.”
The reception area, with its grand room and
roaring fireplace, turned out to be a wonderful
Plan B. As she came down the aisle, Leslie says
that she was trying to look cute but was actually
bawling her eyes out. Jeremy was crying,
too. “For me, that’s when it got real,” Jeremy
says. “That’s when the shock and awe of it all
happened.” OO
—Margaret Snider
140 | REAL WEDDINGS SUMMER/FALL 2018 REALWEDDINGSMAG.COM