“Best Friends Marry at Thorncrown Chapel!
by Judy Montgomery
Staff Wedding Reporter at Purdy Art Co.
When the bride says “I wish every day could be like that”
you know her wedding day was truly special.
That is exactly how Christine Day describes Saturday, April 30, 2011,
the day she married Jason at Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
Chris actually picked that venue when she first visited
Thorncrown in 1998, and knew she wanted to get married there some day. It didn’t hurt that Thorncrown Chapel is in a
favorite locale. “We’re huge fans of
Eureka Springs – the setting, the uniqueness and the small-town friendliness.”
It is also the town where Jason proposed to Chris. After dating for about seven months, they
took a getaway weekend to the Gingerwood Cabin at Lake Lucerne Resort. “He had flowers and champagne and got down on
one knee to ask me to marry him,” Chris recalls. “I answered ‘I suppose’,” she laughs, “but I
meant ‘of course’.”The couple live in Tulsa, Oklahoma and actually worked
together at one time and became friends.
After they both eventually left their common employer, they stayed in
close touch. “We were best friends for
three and a half years before we started dating,” she says.
“Jason went along with whatever I wanted for the
wedding. It was his second marriage and
my first, so I wanted traditional, but not overboard. We wanted a smaller wedding, but with big
impact,” Chris remembers. “To me, our
wedding day was more about our union between me and Jason and the children than
any thing else. I thought ‘I’m marrying
my best friend and his children, what more do I need?’.”
They started the wedding planning by searching on-line. After booking Thorncrown Chapel for the date
they wanted, they searched for a reception location that was size-appropriate
for 70 guests. “We chose the Rock House
Plaza for both its size and the way the pride of the owner showed,” Chris
says.
“We saw reviews that Purdy Art Company was one of the best
photographers and we got exactly what we wanted at a very reasonable price,”
Chris says. Likewise, Eureka Flowers
proved to be easy to work with for all the wedding flowers. “I chose wildflowers with good colors, but an
earthy look and they didn’t try to sell us more than we needed. All the vendors worked well together.”
The couple bought their marriage license at the Courthouse
in Eureka Springs the day before the wedding.
“It was a simple process and they were very friendly, very personable,”
Chris says.
There was no rehearsal time allowed at Thorncrown Chapel,
but everything went “like clockwork” for the ceremony, Chris says. “The pastor who married us, Harry Hoffman,
was actually there the day before when we took the children to show them the
chapel, and he introduced himself to us then.”
Chris scheduled hair and makeup appointments at the New Moon
Spa for her wedding day. “They couldn’t
believe I was getting married that same day because I had no nerves at all.”
Jason’s son, Wyatt, age 9, and Chris’s brother, David Hall,
were attendants, along with Molly, 16, and Josie, 13, daughters of the
groom. The guys wore charcoal gray
business suits that were dressy, but comfortable. Their ties were all wine-colored, but Jason’s
tie was a different pattern.
The two young girls wore full-length strapless wine colored
dresses with full skirts that were age-appropriate, but let them feel dressed
up for the occasion. “My dress from
David’s Bridal was also strapless and full-length, but white, with sequins and
a train,” Chris says. Her veil was also
trimmed with sequins and she carried a bouquet of white gardenias. Jason’s boutonnière was matching white
gardenias.
They shared the special day with people from every aspect of
their lives, from childhood friends to friends from high school and college
times and from their past and current jobs.
And the photos and video help them remember it all.
Chris had high praise for Purdy Art Company, saying, “the
photography could not have been more seamless.
Melodye helped move things along during the reception and she worked
well with all the varied personalities in our families. I highly recommend adding the video
option. It was put together well and
allowed us to see all the little details we missed that day. Melodye has love and passion for what she does
and it shows. My Dad said we got above
and beyond what we paid.”
Time for weddings is limited at Thorncrown Chapel, so after
the ceremony and photos, the group traveled downtown to Rock House Plaza for
the reception. The tables were decorated
with long tapered white candles, wildflowers and place settings for the
meal. “Roanna (McDaniel) was such a
great help that the reception was no work for us that day. The Rock House carried itself, we didn’t need
a theme.”
The cakes were supplied by Rick’s Bakery in Fayetteville,
Arkansas. The fondant-covered wedding
cake was three tiers of white on white bedecked with white roses. The groom’s cake was a “gusher” as a nod to one of Jason’s prior jobs on a real oil rig.
Most of the wedding guests had never heard of Eureka Springs
before, but many plan to visit again, Chris says. Her folks rented the Eagle’s Roost at
Can-U-Canoe Cabins, where the bridal party got ready. Most of the other guests stayed at the
Quality Inn, which Chris chose because of the quality of the rooms on their
walk-through inspection and the price for their guests. “I have flight attendant friends who have
traveled the world and they complimented the hotel,” Chris says.
The wedding party gathered for dinner the night before at
the Basin Park Hotel, where Chris says, “they handled our large group
well.” Other favorite eating locations
included Mud Street Cafe for lunch, Local Flavor and the Pizza Bar. “We also ate at the Garden Bistro two nights
in a row,” where Chris says she especially loves the lavender soup and the freshness
of the food.
The newly-married Days stayed at the Gingerwood Cabin on
their wedding night, then embarked on a 4000-mile honeymoon road trip, stopping
off first in Tulsa to take the children home.
They visited Roswell, New Mexico; Phoenix, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada
and the Sequoya National Forest before heading back to Tulsa and their new life
together.
“People still talk about our wedding,” Chris says of their
special day.
