Page 10 - Winter 2021

From left, Carrie Deese, Molly Young, Tyler Gilland (Man of Honor), Lyndsey Lee, Chelsea Crawford (Matron of Honor), Megan Pegram and Elizabeth Lally enjoy the scenic landscape.
From left, Avery Jones, Clay McCullough, Chase Lee, Blake Smiley (Best Man), Jacob Olds, and Clayton Mitchell. Chase is a firefighter in Walton and Newton counties. It is tradition for the guys to wear their helmets during wedding photos and to hug the groom as they come down the aisle.
wedding vendors had been selected and booked by early February.
Just a few weeks later, COVID-19 shut down the country and planning came to a standstill. Although they had their vendors booked, they didn’t nail anything down until two or three weeks before the Sept. 19 nuptials because COVID guide- lines kept changing.
As a result, the number of people on the guest list fluctuated as they considered the safest way to bring friends and family together to celebrate the sacred union of two people.
The wedding, held at Historic Smithonia Farm in Colbert, was limited to 100 people. The initial guest list was 250, so as a small consolation, everyone on the original list received a commemorative koozie. The wedding was originally scheduled on the night of the Georgia-
Alabama game, and being diehard Bulldog fans, the Gillands planned to have the game on during the reception.
With the rustic farm theme decided and the venue locked down, the bride and her mom went dress shopping at Dressing Dreams in Hartwell.
“I think we broke the record for the quickest wedding dress appointment ever,” Lyndsey said with a laugh. She picked five to try on, including one that didn’t look like any of the dresses she’d had in mind. But when she slid on the “not-what-I-was-thinking” dress and turned around to look in the mirror, she knew it was the one.
“It was just perfect,” Tammy said with a triumphant smile. “When Lyndsey smiled, I knew it was the one. I really felt like that dress brought out her beauty, and she was comfortable in it.”
Luckily, it was in stock, so they ordered the dress and had it well before the wedding. They relied on Maria Reese of Definitely Handmade by Maria to handle all the alterations, as she had done so many times before for all of Lyndsey’s prom and homecoming dresses.
Maria also created a veil using appliqués from Lyndsey’s dress and lace from Tammy’s own wedding dress to create a beautiful one-of-a-kind, two- generation veil. Just like that, something old became something new.
Lyndsey chose taupe dresses from Show Me Your MuMu for her bridesmaids: Molly Young, Elizabeth Lally, Megan Pegram and Carrie Deese and matron of honor, Chase’s sister Chelsea Crawford. She chose a blue suit from Perno’s for her man of honor. Lyndsey asked her brother, Tyler, to stand beside her on her wedding day.
PAGE 8 | OCONEE THE MAGAZINE | WINTER 2021