I was absolutely inspired by these vows! Lorie told me that her and her husband Jon were married in Africa under a gorgeous Acacia tree. She shared a photo of the ceremony with me and I knew we just had to include the tree in the embroidery. It gave me CHILLS.
Their gorgeous wedding photos were taken by Root Photography. You can see more photos of Lorie & Jon's wedding here: Lorie & Jon Wedding 1 / Lorie & Jon Wedding 2
Lorie's vows are so sweet and injected with her own personality, which I always love. She even has a little smiley :) in there! I looove it! Oh and did I already mention THAT TREE? Yeah, I might have. But I can't help saying it over and over, I love that tree.
I asked Lorie to share the story behind her vows and it is absolutely inspiring!
Jon and I have shared a mutual love for Africa since we started dating eight years ago. We met as interns at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom, where we were drivers at Kilimanjaro Safaris. We both knew that we wanted to do the real thing one day! Once we found out that South Africa won the bid for the 2010 World Cup (Jon is huge soccer fan having played throughout high school and college), we were determined to make this trip happen. Neither of us wanted a big wedding, so we thought Africa would also be the perfect place for us to wed.
We definitely faced challenges planning our wedding in a developing nation that we had never visited, but we lucked out with The Manor at Ngorongoro. I was a bit nervous, because the lodge had never hosted a wedding. We let the manager know that we wanted to get married outside under a big tree. Within a week, she emailed us photos of different nearby trees, and we picked the giant acacia. Later, she told us that acacias symbolize purity and endurance and are known as the tree of life! The meaning made it even more special to us, especially knowing that we were the first couple to get married there.
One side effect of creating these hand stitched pieces of art that represent a couple and their lifelong promise of commitment to each other - is that I truly start to become emotionally invested in them! I have never met them, but I begin to care about them and their story and their love. In a really small way, I feel like I'm a tiny part of their story. A little stitch. Lorie & Jon - thank you for trusting in me to create something so meaningful for the two of you to cherish forever! May you live happily ever after!
