Kacee met Micah at Folsom Lake College. On the second day of a class they had together, the teacher popped a quiz. “I forgot to bring a pencil,” Micah says. “I was asking everybody for a pencil and Kacee shot me one back.”

Kacee is a hairstylist, so naturally, among the good things she noticed about Micah, was his long, braided hair. In addition to Kacee’s eyes and her smile, Micah’s gaze caught the tattoos of shears on her ankle and wrist.

A couple of classes later, Micah found himself wondering if Kacee would be at class that day. Then he saw her, coming up the stairs, backlit by the setting sun. “It made me think, ‘Wow, maybe that’s a sign!” Micah says. When the teacher was a no-show that evening, they went to BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse together. “There was just something about him,” Kacee says. “I never felt that way before. I always wanted to be around him, every day, every second.”

Micah told her from the beginning that she was “wife material,” and Kacee says they often talked about marriage. The actual proposal came a few years later, on Valentine’s Day, because he had always said he would never propose on Valentine’s Day and wanted to surprise her. As Micah cooked Kacee dinner, she alluded to marriage as they talked, but he tried to keep his cool, so that he could come out with his surprise. “It started going toward an argument,” Micah says. “I told her that I had a headache and had some aspirin in my pocket. She reached in and pulled the ring out and was just shocked. I actually got the surprise out of her.”

The groom wanted a small, traditional wedding, and the bride wanted grandioso; they had it both ways. Micah got his wish for a private ceremony on the wraparound balcony of the Governor’s Suite of The Citizen Hotel.

“Our ‘first look’ was when we actually got married,” Kacee says.

Only the officiant, photographers, best man and maid of honor were in attendance. That was the first time they said their vows that day.

Then they moved to the grand wedding in the ballroom—complete with family, friends, the flower girl, ring bearer, bridesmaids and groomsmen. “I read [my vows] first,” Micah says. “I thought it was short, but powerful and sweet. She is the better writer and she wrote this elaborate story on what we meant to each other…it was beautiful.” Kacee cried hearing him declare his love in front of all those people.

After the ceremony, they paused to see everything that they had put together. “That was one of my favorite parts,” Micah says, “actually taking a step back and looking at all the guests that had come, all of the centerpieces and the food…just watching everybody on the dance floor enjoying themselves.”

One of the special moments for Kacee was at the end, when they returned to the Governor’s Suite surrounded by guests. “Micah sat up on top of the couch and helped me take five million bobby pins from my hair. It was such a good feeling: Now we were married, and everything went successfully.” And it all started with a pencil. On the wedding favors—yes, a pencil—was inscribed with, “He asked to borrow a pencil…she said yes.”

—Margaret Snider

[slideshowembed ID=”420176″]