Amanda knew early on that Roger was the one. “Initially I admired his ambition and success. However, while dating, I discovered that he is really talented and very intelligent. He has all of the characteristics I was looking for in a mate that I was not willing to compromise on,” she says. “He was always the one for me. It just took me 33 years to find him.”
For Roger, he too knew right away that Amanda would be his wife. “It was obvious that we were going to be married. I set my expectations about getting married very early on because I knew I wanted to marry her,” he says.
The two felt so committed to each other that they didn’t want to wait to start their family. “We knew that a wedding would happen eventually. We got pregnant and decided to plan the wedding before the baby arrived,” Amanda says. On New Year’s Eve, shortly after learning Amanda was pregnant, Roger suggested that they find an engagement ring. “Roger knew I did not want a traditional ring, so he did the smart thing and invited me to shop along with him for my engagement ring. We found a jewelry designer we both liked and began to design the ring. When it came in the mail, I put it on and from that day forward, considered myself engaged!”
They played with the idea of eloping to Las Vegas. “We both love Las Vegas and thought it would be really cool to get married in an old chapel by an Elvis impersonator,” she says. However, after sharing the news of a wedding and a baby with their families, they realized they wanted to share all this joy with those closest to them.
“We settled pretty instantly on the venue: our home,” she says. “I suggested hiring a wedding planner since we had a lot of landscaping and home improvements to focus on before the big day, and I was pregnant. Roger worked evenings and weekends to get the property wedding-ready in just four months!” Amanda envisioned an outdoor wedding under a tent with a romantic and rustic theme. “It turned out spot-on in terms of what I wanted,” she says.
They both got ready together at their house. “I wasn’t worried about him seeing me before the ceremony and I even showed him my dress beforehand. I didn’t want to be too formal about those kinds of traditions,” she says. Another tradition Amanda wanted to break? Wearing white. “I went with a blush dress instead, and I didn’t want a veil either,” she says.
As newlyweds and new parents, the two are still basking in the love they felt that day. “It was better than I thought it would be,” she says. “It truly was romantic.”
—Kourtney Jason
