Page 20 - Real Weddings

AMANDA LOFTIN CHANDLER BURTON
MAY 26, 2018
HERITAGE HELD
Though Amanda and Chandler met during college in 2013, it wasn’t until late 2015 that the pair started dating. “We joke about how we spent two years
secretly in love with each other,” Amanda said. “Everyone around us knew we were going to end up together.” On a January evening in 2018, the couple returned home a er attending a family birthday party. On the way home in the car, Amanda had taken her hair down, rubbed o her makeup and removed her shoes, but Chandler asked her to put her hair back up and her shoes back on. “He had to ght me just to reassemble myself (before getting out of the car). It was late, and I was ready to change my clothes. I didn’t know it, but he was following my wish that if he proposed, I wanted to look nice when he did it.” When Amanda opened the front door, both of their families were in the living room, all with phones in hand to capture the moment. “ e room was covered in twinkling lights, and [there] was my sweetheart,” she said. “His hands were shaking. He knelt down on one knee and said, ‘Amanda Michelle Misenheimer Lo in, will you marry me?’ He barely got to nish before I said yes!”
THE ATTIRE
A er nding a gown she liked on Pinterest, Amanda visited e Bridal Cottage in North Little Rock and showed it to her consultant. While waiting to try on dresses, Amanda picked a gown o the rack. “My consultant came out and laughed and said that was the dress I had shown her, and she had already put one in my size in the dressing room.” A er trying on the gown, Amanda tried
on several others but said none of them held the appeal of that rst one. “I went into my rst bridal shop and bought the rst dress I picked,” she said. “I am the most indecisive person, so when I didn’t have doubts about the dress, I knew it was the one.”
THE EVENT
About 175 guests celebrated the couple’s wedding, which was held in the Old Chapel of Immanuel Baptist Church in El Dorado. e service was performed by Chase Edwards, Andy Whitten and Raedynn England. While the wedding was everything she hoped and more, Amanda said, she regrets not using a wedding planner. “I will say for every bride out there — spring for the consultant or elope,” she said. “A bride and groom should just focus on the love they are uniting, not which website o ers the best deal on nonsmoke sparklers in bulk.”
THE DETAILS
Amanda chose navy and dusty pink, complemented by
earthy colors, for both the ceremony and the reception. e bridesmaids selected various styles of gowns, all in shades of dusty pink, and the groomsmen were clad in gray slacks and white shirts, accented with bow ties and suspenders purchased on Etsy. Amanda carried a Bohemian bouquet of wine- colored dahlias, blush and ivory roses, blue thistle and rose- colored astilbe, all nestled in a bed of silver-dollar eucalyptus and seeded eucalyptus. e ceremony featured a backdrop draped in English ivy and eucalyptus; other oral elements included hydrangeas, white larkspur, dusty miller and more.
20 • real weddings in arkansas | 2018