Shannon and Steven marry at the Greystone Inn in Durham, April 3, 2010

Shannon and Steven met years ago when they were working together at a summer camp in Pennsylvania. A year later, he finished college and moved to NC to be closer to Shannon while she finished her degree.

They are a fun, romantic couple and as I write this post they are honeymooning in Paris. Ah romance. They wrote beautiful wedding vows to each other and I love the story of how Steven proposed to her; she loves to play Scrabble and he gave her a Scrabble game as a gift. While she wasn’t looking, he had pulled out tiles to spell “marry me” and put them out on his tray, exclaiming, “Hey, I’ve already got a word! You should come look at this.” When she came around to see his word, there she found his proposal, complete with a gorgeous ring. How can you not love a guy like that?!

Here’s the photo from that day, framed and displayed at the wedding. You can see her ring sitting on a Scrabble tile in the front.

They chose the setting for their romantic day to be the wonderful Greystone Inn and Conference Center. Sitting in a quiet neighborhood just outside of downtown Durham, it was originally the home of Washington Duke and now functions as an elegant event location. The owner, Leslie Brame, and her assistant, Theresa Writz, were on hand to make sure everything went smoothly for the happy couple. The wedding was held on the front steps of the house and the refreshments were served in the rooms of the first floor. Quite the elegant setting, it lends itself beautifully to so many different styles of weddings. 

The front of the house

the grand piano room

the sunlit foyer coming down from the main staircase

Their wedding cupcakes and cakes were on display in the dining room which, judging by the amazing smells wafting through the house, was sure to be laid out with delectable treats in short order. Here are photos of the cupcakes and cakes, but I neglected to get the name of the bakery that made these beautiful confections that looked almost too good to eat.

Photographing the event were the team of Courtney and Josh Gray of Courtney Gray Photography. They were all over the place taking shots and I can’t wait to see their photos when they are online. Here are two that are currently on their blog;

For her “something old,” Shannon stitched an old wedding photo of her grandparents to the hem of her wedding dress. I have never seen that done before and found it incredibly touching. I got all choked up seeing it.

Shannon and Steven, I hope your life together is a wonderful string of romantic interludes and crazy adventures, starting with your Parisian honeymoon.

L'amour toujours!
___