Nate shared the story of how they got engaged: “We took a trip to Charlotte for a few days to see my family and to also go back to some of our favorite places from when we lived there. We went out shopping with my younger sister and we got to talking about marriage. She told us that she would love to have Velina as a sister and asked why we hadn’t gotten married yet. We told her that we wanted to wait until the timing was right. Velina and I kept talking about it the next day and realized that there would never be a “perfect” time in life to get married - so that afternoon we just thought we would look at rings and see if we could even find any that we liked. We went to this jeweler that specializes in custom jewelry and found 2 rings that we loved. When Velina put them on her finger we both fell in love with them; they are the rings she has now. We had them as her engagement and wedding rings. Neither of us proposed but we chose the rings and decided we were ready together. We got married on March 7th, 2023, which was also our 3 year anniversary.”

Nate and Velina really maximized their wedding flowers by preserving them in many pieces to build the most gorgeous collection! They chose the classic bookends for their Wedding Bouquet Preservation artwork, plus the modern bookends for Velina’s mother. We preserved Nate’s boutonniere in a mini hexagon artwork and made round and hexagon candle holders, faceted and pyramid ring holders, and a necklace!

Florals: East West

Wedding Photographer: Ashley Steffens

Wedding Date: 03.07.23