Today’s wedding is of Polka Dot Bride reader Alexis. Alexis married Dave in East Nashville in September and had a wedding which was a lovely intimate celebration. The wedding was shot by Mary Claire Crow

Before I share the beautiful photos of their wedding, I want to share the story of how Alexis and Dave met. This was written by Dave and featured on the couple’s wedding website.
“The first song Alexis ever heard me sing was “O Holy Night,” onstage with Esposito [Dave’s high school band]at Next Generation – all of us wearing “elf hats” that my mom and sister had gotten as a Black Friday giveaway at J.C. Penny. It was December of 2000. The next day, we had our first conversation. It went something like this:


A: (Tapping me on the back) Hey, great show last night.
D: Oh, you were there? Cool, thanks.


I was lying. I knew she was there.


She was a junior and I was a senior at Brentwood High. Having only a couple of credits left to fulfill that year, I got to take a lot of elective classes. A few of them were easy decisions for me (newspaper, ha), but I remember “Visual Arts” kinda being a last resort. I eventually chose it to round out my schedule, figuring that it would be fun to learn manual photography (I hated it, and the stench of photo fixer.)
I sat in the front by myself, keeping quiet, listening to the High Llamas’ Buzzle Bee on my Discman while making glue-soaked magazine cutout collages.


It was probably a month into the school year when I heard from a friend that Alexis in Visual Arts thought I was cute.
Cute?
This seriously hadn’t happened since 7th grade.
I had certainly noticed her before, but knew nothing about her, and I guess, had subconsciously assumed that she had no interest in me, or that we had nothing in common. But my curiosity had been piqued.


I sat up front and she was in the back. I’d hear her laugh with her friends and watch out of the corner of my eye as she walked to the teacher’s desk to hand something in. Right after winter break, she got really sick. She was gone for two weeks. I remember being really worried about this girl I’d never talked to, and relieved when she finally came back.


Here’s the part that Alexis finds a little embarrassing. This was all happening right at the advent of blogs and online journals. Before Livejournal, before Blogger, before MYSPACE…there was Diaryland. My friends and I all had our own pages on which we spilled our guts. Through a series of clicks, I found hers.


That’s where I learned that she, in fact, was brilliant. And funny, and insightful and so incredibly caring. Someone had given a copy of my band’s CD (burned CD’s were all the rage then) and one day, she quoted some of the lyrics on her page. She closed by saying something like “Dave would think I was such a dork if he knew I was posting this.”


I couldn’t resist. I sent her a message via AOL Instant Messenger (I think she’s even more embarrassed by that) and told I had read it, and told her that I didn’t think it was silly. We hit it off. In text. The next day we had to acknowledge each other, and by the end of the week, I think, she had started sitting up front with me instead of her old group (No hard feelings, guys?)


I don’t think I’ve ever smiled and laughed so much in my life as I did in 3rd period that spring.
After a long dry spell, I started writing and recording music feverishly in my family’s basement. Eventually I had six songs to put on a disc, and gave her a copy. I thought nothing of it, really. It wasn’t long before she gave me an incredible note, wherein she bravely confessed that she couldn’t help but think that one of the songs on the CD was about her. She was wrong. Two of them were.


The next day, May 18th, 2001, after school – perhaps the most important day of my life, until September rolls around – I told her so. What a surreal conversation that was. Sitting next to an algae-filled pond by Jersey Mikes, I told her she was right. I took her home that afternoon and picked her up hours later. We kissed in Crockett Park.

The rest, as they say…”

I’ll be sharing the wedding photos shortly!