Happy, happy wedding week to Mary and Ali!! Hooray! Their wedding week is officially here, and I am unbelievably excited for Mary and Ali to be married and to celebrate their love at their wedding in mere days! It’s so incredibly apparent how much these two love one another and complement each other, and their laughter, love, and joy is so infectious and so apparent. They have such a beautiful and inspiring love story, and Mary and Ali are both so thoughtful, intentional, wise, loving, and generous in countless ways. You can also just see how smitten they are with one another, and it brings the biggest smile to my face!

This wedding is particularly special to me, as I have known Mary for many years! She is one of my sister’s close friends from college, and I met Mary when they were all freshmen at UNC back in 2007. Mary has felt like an adopted little sister to me for so long, and she’s also become a friend of mine! Mary and overlapped in Washington, DC for a couple years and enjoyed many happy hours together, too. So it feels especially sweet to see her fall in love, get engaged, and plan a wedding to the perfect man for her! I love seeing the biggest beam on her face whenever she’s with Ali or whenever she talks about him. They are meant for one another!!

Their wedding day is going to be such a special, personalized, meaningful, and joyous day that reflects who they are as a couple, their backgrounds and heritages, their hearts, and what’s most important to them. It’s going to be surreal to have all of their families and friends gathered together in one place to celebrate Mary and Ali, and I already know there are going to be so many happy tears and big smiles as Mary and Ali are married & celebrate with their loved ones! I love that they chose The Carolina Inn for their destination wedding, as it’s a special place to Mary as a UNC alum – and where her own grandparents recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, too. Many of their guests will be traveling to Chapel Hill from around the country and from the DC area, and The Carolina Inn and Chapel Hill are both such a beautiful, quintessentially Southern, hospitable place to host a wedding weekend.

I am so, so excited about the wedding design and all of the beauty that will come to life for them this weekend! With a color palette of various shades of dusty blue and navy, blush and mauve, greens, white, a touch of modern black, and pops of wine, Mary and Ali’s wedding is perfect for Spring in Chapel Hill and filled with romantic, timeless colors and textures, accents of organic greenery and abundant candlelight, and bold black details. Their wedding has a timeless elegance with modern touches, a bevy of personalized and meaningful details and moments, and will be polished, fresh, and fun! We’re also working with so many of my very favorite creative partners and vendors for their wedding, so you know it’s going to be gorgeous and memorable. There are some sweet, fun touches in store for Mary and Ali’s wedding guests!

I know it’s going to be an incredibly joyful, meaningful, and truly memorable first day of marriage as Mary and Ali are married and celebrated by their loved ones! It has been such an honor and joy to be a part of their wedding planning process and to get to know them even better throughout their engagement. These two are incredibly genuine, thoughtful, dedicated, passionate, loving people who clearly bring out the best in one another. It’s such a long-awaited occasion to celebrate with their beloved family and friends and to kick off married life for them in such a special, heartfelt, memorable, and meaningful way. Mary and Ali, your wedding week is finally here, and I hope you feel nothing but an abundance of love, excitement, and joy as you two are married and are celebrated with such profound joy and excitement! You were clearly made for one another, and your love is so inspiring. Congratulations, Mary and Ali!! Wishing you two all the love, laughter, and joy in the world!

Stayed tuned this weekend for lots of sneak peeks of Mary and Ali’s wedding on my Instagram! I already can’t wait to see it all come to life for them as we celebrate this joyous, gorgeous day for one extraordinary couple!

all photos by the wonderful Annie Timmons Photography