Sam and Kyle grew up in Vacaville, attending both middle school and high school together. “We had a lot of the same friends, but we aren’t your usual high school sweetheart story,” says Samantha. “It wasn’t until our school planned its first ever Sadie Hawkins dance that I started looking at Kyle as more than just a classmate.” Dared by a bunch of her girlfriends to ask Kyle to the dance, she did, on a whim. “The dance ended up being a bust, but for Kyle and me, it was the start of a great relationship. And now I can say I made the first move!”
Their engagement story starts with a telescope Kyle had borrowed. “I assumed, like his crab pots and road bike, it was just another hobby he was taking up, so I didn’t give it much thought. A couple weeks went by and Kyle convinced Sam to put her eye to the telescope. “When I looked through, the words ‘Can you see?”’ came into focus. ‘YES! I can see! Move that $*@#! piece of paper,’” she snapped, still thinking nothing of it. After a few moments of no response and the message still in sight, she pulled her eye back from the telescope and found Kyle down on one knee. “Can you see your future with me?” he calmly asked. “After a few moments of total shock and probably a few more sailor words of surprise, I said ‘yes!’”
Trying to keep it together and be as stress-free of a bride as possible, Sam focused on all of the big pieces and let the little things come together on their own. “Our must-haves were a great photographer, since that’s what we have to look back on later, and a great DJ, because that’s who really runs the show and we knew we wanted it to be a good party,” she says. Sam also wanted to incorporate her mom’s homemade limoncello and her dad’s love for classic cars. So they swapped the champagne for more than 30 bottles of limoncello and had an entrance for the bride and bridesmaids in her dad’s vintage truck.
Though Kyle didn’t get too involved in the details of the planning, he did help Sam make important decisions when she was being indecisive. “I would choose three of something and he would pick one,” she shares. “One of my favorite things was working on save the dates and invitations, since that was the first glimpse people would have into our big day.”
The couple planned a short and sweet ceremony that had its own unique touches. They asked their close friend Jamie to marry them, who they describe as well spoken and charismatic. “At one point, he even had changed the words from Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ and had our guests singing the chorus during the ceremony,” says Sam. “It was so special to have someone who really knows both of us individually and as a couple to share this special day with us.”
While the couple snapped pictures against an amazing sunset, guests sipped limoncello as an acoustic guitarist played. “The reception was one great party for our guests, who ate, drank and danced the night away,” says the bride. “I have never seen that kind of energy on the dance floor before and was impressed at all the ways our DJ kept things exciting until the very last song.” By the end of the night, she says the dance floor was in shambles, but well worth the chaos. “When I’m with friends and family and certain songs come on from our wedding, people tell me it makes them think of when it played at the reception. This is such a cool
thing to hear!”
— Darren Elms
