Marmaros Productions

Mar 25, 20217 min read

Nicole & Joe

6.22.2019 | Heritage Sandy Springs

How We Met

Nicole & Joe were recommended to us by their photographer, Catherine. This name might sound familiar to you and that is because we have been raving about Catherine for years - we LOVE her! We knew Nicole & Joe were going to be a great couple before we even met them! Despite the fact that we went to the wrong restaurant (oops) and that Nicole got into a fender-bender minutes before our meeting, we clicked almost right away! At our introductory meeting, we discovered that they had already booked Gen (our Ponce City Market bride) as their florist and Nicole & Mallory went to the same high school! With all the connections we had, we left our meeting that day with a great connection & a June wedding in the books for 2019.

Love Story

Long distance relationships are always hard - especially when they travel across states and timezones. We loved hearing about Nicole & Joe's relationship in the early days before they lived in the same city and how they thank the people most important to them! Here is their story:

Our relationship began with two things we each hold dear: Friends and Family.

Our beginnings were in Ohio where Nicole would visit her cousin Jaclyn every summer and winter break. As fate would have it, Jacyln and her brother Jon lived in the same neighborhood as Joe. When Nicole would visit Jacyln, Joe was around hanging out with Jon. As our paths crossed many times over the years, we began to know each other well. Nicole - sometimes known to be flirty - attracted Joe's attention. Many late night phone calls later, a relationship was born. Long distance between Atlanta, Georgia and Springfield, Ohio was the reality for the early days. We traveled between Georgia and Ohio often, over which time a strong relationship started. We met all of each other's friends and families, took camping trips, went to concerts, and realized that what we had was special, unique, and something worth fighting for. After a year and a half of driving back and forth, short phone calls between classes and countless hours of lost sleep, we knew long distance would not work forever. We wanted to be together and since Nicole was in college, it was up to Joe to make the move. After many weeks of searching for jobs, he was able to land one in Atlanta putting him closer to his beloved girlfriend.

Once Joe moved to Atlanta, we started living our lives together, figuring how to balance work, school, and fun, including friends and family. Things fell into step naturally. We were so happy finally being close to one another and breaking the distance barrier to pursue a long and happy relationship. We are very excited as we look forward to our future together and having surpassed many tests and hurdles that came across early in our relationship. We learned that it takes lots of communication, sacrifice, patience, and love to really make something work. Over six years into our relationship, Joe popped the question while on a ski trip in Stowe, Vermont. We are so excited to spend the rest of our lives together and very ready to meet and conquer any other obstacles in our future.

There is no way our relationship would have succeeded without the support of amazing friends and family. To all of you, we owe a great deal of gratitude. Thank you so much for believing in us as a couple through the hard times, picking up our phone calls, coming to visit, and staying up too late; Thank you for encouraging our dreams, and most importantly, for just being there. We cannot wait to have you all on our journey to whatever our future holds.

Down to Business

Why is it that we are always telling you that we eat well with our couples? Well...whatever the reason is, meetings with Nicole & Joe were no different! Downtown Roswell offered so many good places for us to pick from and every meeting was productive and delicious. Every meeting we got to know this couple more and more deeply and we couldn’t wait for their wedding day! We had walkthroughs with vendors and Nicole’s Parents to get well acquainted with the space and talked about floor plans and where the bars would go. Nicole & Joe - thanks for introducing so many yummy restaurants to us! Even though planning is over, we’ll have to go back to one of the many restaurants together soon!

The Big Day

When the wedding day finally came, we were so excited to get them ready to tie the knot! The threat of rain was no intimidation to Nicole, Joe, or their families - the wedding was going to be outside no matter what! We stopped by Home Depot and got some pavers for Nicole, Joe, & Judy (their minister) to stand on during the ceremony to keep them away from all of the mud from all the mid-afternoon summer showers we get here in Georgia. When we went to check on the bridal party, we noticed that the girls were so relaxed while getting ready that they were having a dance party while eating sandwiches!

We love when we work with Bloomin’ Bouquets because they are on top of setting up everything! They set up the ceremony arch (even while it was sprinkling) and all the centerpieces for the reception. While Bloomin’ Bouquets were taking care of everything florals, we put out table cloths, table numbers, and made sure each table had the right amount of seats based on the seating chart. With everything set up and ready to go early on, we got to spend the rest of the mid-afternoon checking in on the guys to see they had everything they needed and making sure the gals were on track to finish hair & make up in time for Catherine to start her magic!

When we say that we ran into a big issue on Nicole & Joe’s big day, you probably expect us to say that it started to downpour right before the ceremony was supposed to start. Yes, we had an issue before the ceremony started, but surprisingly enough it had to do with a neighboring business. The restaurant across the street had a live band playing, so we had to run over to BEG them to stop playing music during the ceremony because otherwise it was going to drown us out. Thank goodness the band was taking a break right before the ceremony started and were going to start playing again just after the ceremony ended! This was a total miracle that we were so thankful for!

After a beautiful first look and getting majority of the photos done, we let the bridal party and families go back to the AC before guests started to arrive. The fans & water were a real lifesaver for the guests (and for us) as we were waiting for 5:30 to approach! Once everyone was ready we started the processional where Joe walked his Grandfather down the aisle to start us off. Nicole and Joe did something a little different and had all their bridal party sit for the wedding and just had their Maid Of Honor & Best Man stand with them as the ceremony was going on. This was an excellent choice and made the ceremony space really thrive! Both of Nicole’s parents walked her down the aisle to give her away to Joe - such a sweet moment!

The ceremony was a true reflection of Nicole & Joe - real, funny, and full of love. Complete with Personal Vows and words that were said to Judy in their one on one meetings leading up to the wedding. There were tears of love and happiness as these two became one.

After the ceremony, all the guests were escorted to the veranda where we had a cocktail hour with flowing drinks and passed hors d'oeuvres for hungry guests. There, the guests could find their seats for reception, sign the beautiful wooden guest book, and view photos of Nicole & Joe as kids along with photos from their parents and grandparents' weddings. Since we knocked out most of the photos before the ceremony, Nicole & Joe got to be a part of Cocktail Hour!

Once everyone was in the reception space & the bridal party was lined up, we introduced everyone and started the first dance before releasing everyone to the delicious buffet! Nicole & Joe started walking around and mingling with their guests. Meanwhile a monsoon moved in just as we were done needing the outside! The rain cooled everything off and allowed for better dancing conditions! After dinner wrapped up, we moved into the other formal dances then kicked off the dance floor - boy did that dance party catch on FIRE! This group danced like there was no tomorrow! Usually we don’t recommend more than an hour and a half of dancing but in this case, the three hours we had still wasn’t enough!

Nicole & Joe didn’t want a formal send off, but they did do a final song with everyone in the room and it turned into a fun last dance/karaoke moment!

Something Spectacular

We loved a lot of things about this wedding but the most spectacular thing about Nicole & Joe’s day was the HUGE shuttle bus that was rented to get all the guests to and from the wedding safely! When Joe first mentioned a bus - we weren’t thinking a CHARTER bus! But this couple doesn’t do anything halfway! The photos make it look like we are on an airplane that’s how big it was! This was the biggest way for a couple and their guests to leave a wedding!

Happily Ever After

We are so thankful to Catherine for recommending us to Nicole & Joe! We loved getting to know them and working on their day! We wish them every happiness and a continually adventure through marriage! Welcome to forever!