Happy Anniversary, Anna + Drew!

On this day last year, the Farm was buzzing with excitement as we prepared for Anna + Drew’s wedding day. Anna and Drew met during their freshman year of high school where they both joined the Track & Field team as pole vaulters. Neither had experience pole vaulting before joining so they spent a lot of time together both at school and practices. As their friendship grew, it blossomed into a relationship where they attended prom together, became nationally ranked pole vaulters, graduated, and were recruited to pole vault at UNC Chapel Hill. The rest of their story is history, which led to this incredible June afternoon where Anna would walk down the aisle to Drew.

The Proposal: While walking through their reception, I could tell that Anna and Drew had traveled quite a bit together. Each table was named after a place they had visited and had a picture of them together. Anna told me about their proposal story: “In [the] fall semester of our Junior year of college, we did what not many other student-athletes had the opportunity to do, we studied abroad in Vienna, Austria. One week before Christmas and our return home to the States, we took our last weekend trip to Innsbruck, Austria. We explored the town's Christmas markets and did a variety of winter sports. While we were cross country skiing, Drew suggested that we ski up a hill for a view of the landscape. After several minutes of struggling and complaining, we made it up the hill where Drew got down on one knee and proposed. It was an incredible moment because it was just the two of us reminiscing on our relationship through the years.”

The Party: Throughout the Farm, you could feel Anna and Drew’s love story warming the hearts of their family, friends and guests. The Bridesmaids wore soft blue chiffon dresses from Kennedy Blue, while Drew & his groomsmen were dressed in navy suits from Menguin. Anna was jaw-dropping in her gorgeous, lace, Stella York dress from Carolina Bridal World.

Inside the Barn was transformed into an elegant and romantic reception with champagne linens, Carolina blue napkins and a beautiful place setting from CE Rental. Anna created much of their beautiful wedding décor herself including her invitations which were printed by Minted, their seating chart, table “numbers” that were places they visited, their reception menu, and more. To see more of her art, follow her Instagram account: @annapedersenart. Flowers on Broad Street filled the Barn with the scent of summer florals like hydrangeas and peonies. The head table was my favorite, covered in tiny vases filled with flower stems. The wedding coordinator, Emily Thomas with Emily Katherine Events, made sure their day was completely seamless from decorating the venue while Anna had her hair and makeup done to ensuring Napoli’s pizza was served right on time!

Anna and Drew’s favorite moment of their day was their ceremony. “It was a beautiful picture of our love and commitment to one another. Our pastor incorporated our faith into the ceremony which really made it special,” says Anna. You’ve likely seen a photo of this sweet couple on our social media before; they’re the ones that served pizza family-style at their reception! Their love for pizza started way back when they discovered after only a few months of dating that they had been in the same preschool class and Anna had attended Drew’s 4th birthday celebration, which was a pizza party! Anna says, “most of our favorite memories involve pizza in some way or another so it was so fitting that we celebrated our wedding with our favorite food.”

Advice to Future Brides & Grooms: Anna’s advice to future couples that are preparing to tie the knot is to “not worry too much about what other people will think of your wedding. Your guests will have fun as long as you are having fun and its always a good idea to bring personal touches into your big day. At first we were worried about serving pizza at a wedding but our guest ended up loving it!” And I can tell you first hand that that pizza was incredible! I loved watching Anna, Drew and their wedding party have so much fun on the dance floor all the way until it was time for them to hop on the bus to head home. Yep, I did mean “bus.” They converted a mini-bus into a camper and use that as their “getaway” car at the wedding!

Since this is their 1st anniversary, I asked Anna + Drew about their favorite thing during this first year of marriage. It was driving across the country on the same bus they left their wedding in! They traveled to 17 states in 3 months! If you want to see clips of their incredible trip, follow Finn’s Adventures on Instagram @finnthebus. Cheers to many more adventures ahead for Anna + Drew! We wish you only the best!

Olivia NorrisJune 22, 2020Comment