By: Judy Montgomery
Staff Wedding Reporter at Purdy Art Co.
“I’m a city person, but this cowboy knows how to love a
woman,” says Lynn Null of her husband, Woody.
They were married in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, on Thursday, April 28,
2011. The nuptials took place at 4:30 in
the afternoon in the garden of the Tree House Cottages as the sun beamed
through the surrounding trees. The
spring floods had abated, Lynn says, as if just for them. “The weather was perfect on our day and so
was the location.”
The day was charmed, it seems, for this pair who found
unexpected love later in their lives.
They were the first to arrive at the Carroll County Courthouse that
morning for their marriage license. The
clerks were “friendly and sweet as can be,” Lynn recalls. “In fact, Eureka Springs was awesome – I
didn’t run into one person in the stores or restaurants who wasn’t just
delightful.”
For the ceremony Woody wore a black western suit with white
shirt and tie printed with cowboys and saddles.
And of course, the cowboy wore boots.
Lynn chose a long black skirt and a white long-sleeved overblouse with
ruffles and a stand-up collar. She wore
crystal beads in her dark hair to give her what she calls “sparkly hair”. And carried a bouquet of white roses and
white Gerber daisies. They ate cake and
drank champagne after the ceremony, but waited until they were back home for a
reception at their church.
“Our wedding was perfect, it was fun and relaxed,” Lynn
says. And that was all captured by
Melodye Purdy of Purdy Art Company. “I
picked Melodye after talking to other photographers, because she seemed so
willing to work with me to do what I could afford. That day, she helped spark the fun for all of
us.”
The couple enjoyed their time in Eureka Springs. They ate dinner on their wedding night at
Autumn Breeze Restaurant with her daughters.
“It was wonderful, especially that famous chocolate souffle,” Lynn
says. They had breakfast the next
morning at the Crescent Hotel’s Crystal Dining Room. “And we had several meals at Mud Street Cafe
while we were in town – it’s our favorite place,” she adds.
One of Lynn’s daughters had signed her mother onto Christian
Date Line. Lynn had come through the
other side of divorce from and then the sudden death of her husband of almost
30 years. “I had healed emotionally and
spiritually, but it’s true that I was lonesome,” she admits. The on-line dating was fun, she says, but she
had just about put it aside for good when she got an inquiry from “this Woody
character” in October 2010. Lynn, now
62, says at first she continued to communicate with other men on the date line
while getting to know Woody, who is 57 years old. Once the two met in person that November,
however, things were changing. “Our
first date was 12 hours long,” Lynn remembers.
“But I was already starting to fall in love with him before we met.”
When Woody asked her to commit to seeing him exclusively, he
told her, “I’m not trying on shoes. I
know what I want. Are you willing to
take that next step with me?”
“So I said I would, and I quit the singles line,” Lynn
says. “We took that step of faith and
love bloomed. We laugh a lot and he
makes me feel beautiful, young again.”
The pair stayed at the Tree House Cottages for two nights
and then went on to Silver Dollar City for two additional nights before heading
home to Tulsa, where Woody is a stock clerk for American Airlines and Lynn is a
nurse.
Even though the couple returned home to their routines, they
say they are living a true romance story.
Woody tells Lynn, “I’m happier every day.”
She says, “we just live to make each other happy. You give love and it comes back.”
