Bride} Diana McLemore
{Groom} Loyd McDowell
{Hometowns} Diana – Grenada, MS
Loyd – Benoit, MS
{Wedding Site} First Baptist Church, Cleveland, MS
{Reception Site} Dockery Farms
{Bride’s Bouquet} White tibet roses
{Bridesmaid Bouquets} White hydrangeas and blush roses
{How did the two of you meet?}
Our story began over four years ago at Delta State University. Loyd was working at the Bologna Performing Arts Center on campus, and I was in graduate school. As part of my Graduate Assistant position, I spent time doing Marketing for the BPAC. Each day I was there, Loyd would make sure to come find me and speak to me. The short “hellos” quickly became longer conversations, and my roommates and parents started hearing me talk about this guy named Loyd a lot!
Loyd helps out at Dockery Farms when they have events, and they were having a dinner one weekend for Herbie Hancock. They needed more people to help out, so I was the lucky one to be able to volunteer. Friday night after we decorated for the dinner that was on Saturday, he asked me to go out to eat, where we had our first official date. After meeting each other’s families and spending lots of more time together, we decide to make it official, and we have been laughing together ever since!
{What is your proposal story?}
Since we have been together, Loyd has been able to go on all of my family vacations with us. May of 2015, we went to Gatlinburg, TN with my parents and grandmother, where we spent a week in the mountains. The first day we were there we went hiking to Laurel Falls. It took us a little time to hike to the waterfall, but once we got there it was definitely worth the hike. It was gorgeous! We took time playing in the water and taking lots of pictures together as a family, then Loyd and I wanted to take some pictures of the two of us. It is not every day that you get pictures in front of a waterfall! It was then where he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! Everything was perfect! My parents and grandmother were able to share that moment with us, and we got pictures of the entire thing. For the rest of the week in the mountains, we were able to celebrate being a newly engaged couple as we enjoyed vacation with my family.
{What inspired your wedding and reception locations?}
Growing up, I always knew I would get married in my home church in Grenada. However, Loyd and I both live in Cleveland, MS and both work at Delta State, so it was no question that we wanted to get married in Cleveland, where we had started and built our relationship. We had been attending church at First Baptist, and decided to have the wedding ceremony there. It was simple, yet gorgeous! The location of the reception came with our love of the Mississippi Delta, and of course the fact that our relationship had lots of history there. We wanted to incorporate all things Delta in our wedding reception, and we thought the best way to do that would be at Dockery Farms!
{What inspired your color scheme/theme/flowers?}
If you asked a friend or family member who attended our wedding what the theme was, I would hope they would say it was Southern, sweet, and elegant. I have always pictured my wedding day being those three things, and it turned out to be everything I had dreamed of it to be! I think that had everything to do with the color scheme I went for. I chose blush colored dresses for the bridesmaids, and grey suits for the guys. I did not want anything too dark. I thought these colors were also perfect for the Spring April wedding we wanted. As far as the flowers went, I wanted them to be simple and light to go along with the theme too. Along with some greenery, I chose all blush and white flowers.
{How did you pick “the dress?”}
Like every girl who gets engaged, I bought all the magazines and studied lots of wedding websites to get ideas on dresses. I made an appointment at Low’s Bridal in Brinkley, AR and spent the day there with my family trying dresses on. Being an only child, my sweet Daddy cried a little every single time I walked out in a dress. I probably tried on twenty different ones in lots of different styles until I found the one that I knew I would walk down the aisle in. I was so worried that I would never be able to pick “the one.” I am so indecisive and cannot make a big decision for anything! But once I put my dress on, I just knew! It fit my personality perfectly, and I knew it would go with the elegant and sweet theme of the wedding I wanted.
{What’s your favorite unique accessory? Is there a story behind it?}
How can a girl pick only one favorite accessory?! My shoes made me feel like Cinderella, and my sweet dainty bracelet that my parents gave me meant so much. However, I think the most special and unique accessory I wore that day was my garter. It was my “something borrowed” and my “something blue.” My mom had been saving her garter that she wore when she married my Dad, and surprised me with it for my wedding. Not only was it the one that she wore, but it was something that my Great-Grandmother had made my Mom for her wedding. I never got the pleasure of meeting my Great-Grandmother, but to be wearing something on my special day that she made meant so much to me. And to know that it was the same one that my Mom wore when my parents were married was the icing on the cake! I can only pray that Loyd and I have a relationship like my parents do after 30 years of marriage.
{What was your favorite part of the wedding planning process?}
There are lots of fun parts when it comes to planning a wedding. From picking the dress to choosing the cake, everything seemed to be more exciting than the last. However, I think I would have to say that overall the fact that I had my mom there with me to plan everything was my favorite part. Every little girl dreams of the day they become a bride, but I also think when a woman has a daughter that she begins dreaming of her little girl’s wedding day too. My mom helped me with so much, and we made lots of fun memories during the year of planning. She made it to every dress fitting, helped me decide on invitations, and spent hours with me looking at wedding magazines for more ideas. We had so much fun together, and I am so thankful that she wanted to be a part of everything!
{Besides the actual wedding, what was your favorite moment of the wedding day?}
I think the moment that stands out to me the most was the first time Loyd and I saw each other that day. It was not a hard decision for us that we wanted to see each other before the wedding. We thought that would help get any nervous feelings out that we had about the day, and we could also spend time taking some pictures together before the wedding. Loyd was standing at the front of the altar in the sanctuary as I made my way down to him. And I could not wait to see him! As I put my hand on his shoulder, my heart was beating so fast! Once he turned around, you could see it on his face that he was in awe of his bride. It makes my heart smile just remembering it. He took my hand and spun me around so he could see my dress, and I was able to check out all the details of his suit and admire how handsome he looked. It was such a sweet moment, and I am so very thankful that we did it the way that we did!
{What was your favorite surprise detail/moment about your wedding day?}
Loyd is a Volunteer Firefighter in Cleveland, so we wanted to incorporate that somehow on our wedding day. The Cleveland Volunteer Fire Department has a 1940’s antique fire engine, and we decided that was the perfect thing to leave the church in as we headed to the reception! As we said “I do” and walked out of the church, the truck was there waiting on us. Our guests were all able to come outside and wave to us as we left in the old fire engine. It was such a neat touch to the wedding day, and something very memorable. I see people almost 8 months later and they still talk about us leaving in the fire truck!
{Your favorite picture from the big day?}
I think my favorite picture changes every day, but if I had to choose a favorite right now (there are so many!) it would be the one of us walking in the field. Loyd is holding my hand and I am looking back at him, and it is just too sweet! Also, I have always looked at this picture and thought that it could be in a Fairytale (thanks Brian!), and I truly felt like our wedding day was a Fairytale. So today, this is my favorite picture!
{The picture that represents the two of you best?}
This picture was not planned at all. In fact, I think we were actually walking to our next location to take pictures. But it describes us in more ways than one. First of all, the pure joy on our faces says it all. That was the happiest day of our lives, and it was written all over our faces! He makes me smile like that on a daily basis. As I look at Loyd in this picture, I notice that he is holding my dress in one hand (to help me walk), and holding my bouquet in the other. This is totally his personality, as he is always such a gentleman to me. He does anything and everything to be there for me and help me, and this picture is a pure example of that. I love this picture and think it sums us up perfectly.
VENDORS:
Photographer: B.Flint Photography
Event Planner: The Pantry, Inc.
Dress: Low’s Bridal
Hair: Kut Works
Bridesmaid Dresses: Engagements, Grenada, MS
Tuxes: The Black Tux
Videographer: Rogers Smith
Venue: First Baptist Church, Cleveland, MS (ceremony) and Dockery Farms (reception)
Rentals: The Pantry, Inc.
Florist: The Pantry, Inc.
Catering: The Pantry, Inc.
Band: JazzMagic
Bride’s Cake: The Pantry, Inc.
Groom’s Cake: The Pantry, Inc.
Print Material: ZIPrint, Grenada, MS
{Groom} Loyd McDowell
{Hometowns} Diana – Grenada, MS
Loyd – Benoit, MS
{Wedding Site} First Baptist Church, Cleveland, MS
{Reception Site} Dockery Farms
{Bride’s Bouquet} White tibet roses
{Bridesmaid Bouquets} White hydrangeas and blush roses
{How did the two of you meet?}
Our story began over four years ago at Delta State University. Loyd was working at the Bologna Performing Arts Center on campus, and I was in graduate school. As part of my Graduate Assistant position, I spent time doing Marketing for the BPAC. Each day I was there, Loyd would make sure to come find me and speak to me. The short “hellos” quickly became longer conversations, and my roommates and parents started hearing me talk about this guy named Loyd a lot!
Loyd helps out at Dockery Farms when they have events, and they were having a dinner one weekend for Herbie Hancock. They needed more people to help out, so I was the lucky one to be able to volunteer. Friday night after we decorated for the dinner that was on Saturday, he asked me to go out to eat, where we had our first official date. After meeting each other’s families and spending lots of more time together, we decide to make it official, and we have been laughing together ever since!
{What is your proposal story?}
Since we have been together, Loyd has been able to go on all of my family vacations with us. May of 2015, we went to Gatlinburg, TN with my parents and grandmother, where we spent a week in the mountains. The first day we were there we went hiking to Laurel Falls. It took us a little time to hike to the waterfall, but once we got there it was definitely worth the hike. It was gorgeous! We took time playing in the water and taking lots of pictures together as a family, then Loyd and I wanted to take some pictures of the two of us. It is not every day that you get pictures in front of a waterfall! It was then where he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! Everything was perfect! My parents and grandmother were able to share that moment with us, and we got pictures of the entire thing. For the rest of the week in the mountains, we were able to celebrate being a newly engaged couple as we enjoyed vacation with my family.
{What inspired your wedding and reception locations?}
Growing up, I always knew I would get married in my home church in Grenada. However, Loyd and I both live in Cleveland, MS and both work at Delta State, so it was no question that we wanted to get married in Cleveland, where we had started and built our relationship. We had been attending church at First Baptist, and decided to have the wedding ceremony there. It was simple, yet gorgeous! The location of the reception came with our love of the Mississippi Delta, and of course the fact that our relationship had lots of history there. We wanted to incorporate all things Delta in our wedding reception, and we thought the best way to do that would be at Dockery Farms!
{What inspired your color scheme/theme/flowers?}
If you asked a friend or family member who attended our wedding what the theme was, I would hope they would say it was Southern, sweet, and elegant. I have always pictured my wedding day being those three things, and it turned out to be everything I had dreamed of it to be! I think that had everything to do with the color scheme I went for. I chose blush colored dresses for the bridesmaids, and grey suits for the guys. I did not want anything too dark. I thought these colors were also perfect for the Spring April wedding we wanted. As far as the flowers went, I wanted them to be simple and light to go along with the theme too. Along with some greenery, I chose all blush and white flowers.
{How did you pick “the dress?”}
Like every girl who gets engaged, I bought all the magazines and studied lots of wedding websites to get ideas on dresses. I made an appointment at Low’s Bridal in Brinkley, AR and spent the day there with my family trying dresses on. Being an only child, my sweet Daddy cried a little every single time I walked out in a dress. I probably tried on twenty different ones in lots of different styles until I found the one that I knew I would walk down the aisle in. I was so worried that I would never be able to pick “the one.” I am so indecisive and cannot make a big decision for anything! But once I put my dress on, I just knew! It fit my personality perfectly, and I knew it would go with the elegant and sweet theme of the wedding I wanted.
{What’s your favorite unique accessory? Is there a story behind it?}
How can a girl pick only one favorite accessory?! My shoes made me feel like Cinderella, and my sweet dainty bracelet that my parents gave me meant so much. However, I think the most special and unique accessory I wore that day was my garter. It was my “something borrowed” and my “something blue.” My mom had been saving her garter that she wore when she married my Dad, and surprised me with it for my wedding. Not only was it the one that she wore, but it was something that my Great-Grandmother had made my Mom for her wedding. I never got the pleasure of meeting my Great-Grandmother, but to be wearing something on my special day that she made meant so much to me. And to know that it was the same one that my Mom wore when my parents were married was the icing on the cake! I can only pray that Loyd and I have a relationship like my parents do after 30 years of marriage.
{What was your favorite part of the wedding planning process?}
There are lots of fun parts when it comes to planning a wedding. From picking the dress to choosing the cake, everything seemed to be more exciting than the last. However, I think I would have to say that overall the fact that I had my mom there with me to plan everything was my favorite part. Every little girl dreams of the day they become a bride, but I also think when a woman has a daughter that she begins dreaming of her little girl’s wedding day too. My mom helped me with so much, and we made lots of fun memories during the year of planning. She made it to every dress fitting, helped me decide on invitations, and spent hours with me looking at wedding magazines for more ideas. We had so much fun together, and I am so thankful that she wanted to be a part of everything!
{Besides the actual wedding, what was your favorite moment of the wedding day?}
I think the moment that stands out to me the most was the first time Loyd and I saw each other that day. It was not a hard decision for us that we wanted to see each other before the wedding. We thought that would help get any nervous feelings out that we had about the day, and we could also spend time taking some pictures together before the wedding. Loyd was standing at the front of the altar in the sanctuary as I made my way down to him. And I could not wait to see him! As I put my hand on his shoulder, my heart was beating so fast! Once he turned around, you could see it on his face that he was in awe of his bride. It makes my heart smile just remembering it. He took my hand and spun me around so he could see my dress, and I was able to check out all the details of his suit and admire how handsome he looked. It was such a sweet moment, and I am so very thankful that we did it the way that we did!
{What was your favorite surprise detail/moment about your wedding day?}
Loyd is a Volunteer Firefighter in Cleveland, so we wanted to incorporate that somehow on our wedding day. The Cleveland Volunteer Fire Department has a 1940’s antique fire engine, and we decided that was the perfect thing to leave the church in as we headed to the reception! As we said “I do” and walked out of the church, the truck was there waiting on us. Our guests were all able to come outside and wave to us as we left in the old fire engine. It was such a neat touch to the wedding day, and something very memorable. I see people almost 8 months later and they still talk about us leaving in the fire truck!
{Your favorite picture from the big day?}
I think my favorite picture changes every day, but if I had to choose a favorite right now (there are so many!) it would be the one of us walking in the field. Loyd is holding my hand and I am looking back at him, and it is just too sweet! Also, I have always looked at this picture and thought that it could be in a Fairytale (thanks Brian!), and I truly felt like our wedding day was a Fairytale. So today, this is my favorite picture!
{The picture that represents the two of you best?}
This picture was not planned at all. In fact, I think we were actually walking to our next location to take pictures. But it describes us in more ways than one. First of all, the pure joy on our faces says it all. That was the happiest day of our lives, and it was written all over our faces! He makes me smile like that on a daily basis. As I look at Loyd in this picture, I notice that he is holding my dress in one hand (to help me walk), and holding my bouquet in the other. This is totally his personality, as he is always such a gentleman to me. He does anything and everything to be there for me and help me, and this picture is a pure example of that. I love this picture and think it sums us up perfectly.
VENDORS:
Photographer: B.Flint Photography
Event Planner: The Pantry, Inc.
Dress: Low’s Bridal
Hair: Kut Works
Bridesmaid Dresses: Engagements, Grenada, MS
Tuxes: The Black Tux
Videographer: Rogers Smith
Venue: First Baptist Church, Cleveland, MS (ceremony) and Dockery Farms (reception)
Rentals: The Pantry, Inc.
Florist: The Pantry, Inc.
Catering: The Pantry, Inc.
Band: JazzMagic
Bride’s Cake: The Pantry, Inc.
Groom’s Cake: The Pantry, Inc.
Print Material: ZIPrint, Grenada, MS
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