Often a bride’s wedding is a reflection of her personality. Such is the case in today’s Real Wedding, where one word accurately sums up both wedding and bride: stunning!
Enjoy Tyler and T’Neil’s amazing wedding story, as well as these gorgeous wedding photos and bridal portraits.
The Engagement:
Tyler and T’Neil met while Tyler was leading worship at BOTT in 2005. It was a whirlwind of a year: they went on their first date on January 18th, were engaged on March 12th, and got married on December 16th.
In the months leading up to their wedding, Tyler and T’Neil maintained a long-distance relationship — and stayed busy! Tyler built a house in Louisiana while going to school at Northwestern for Linguistics. T’Neil also went to school: she actually had two finals — one in Neuropsychology and one in Statistics — the day of the rehearsal dinner!
The Dress:
For many brides, one of the best parts of wedding planning is choosing a dress. In pursuit of the perfect dress, T’Neil flew to NYC and went to Kleinfeld’s Bridal (before it was the “Say Yes to the Dress” store).
The third dress T’Neil tried on was her dream dress. It was a tube top, so she redesigned the top part and had a designer in Italy create it. It turned out that there are many Jewish people in NYC, so adding sleeves is very common and was something the designer was willing to do.
“I wanted huge and fluffy,” T’Neil says. “Why not? You only get to wear a huge, fluffy dress once in your life. It weighed about fifty pounds . . . So it was a commitment to put on!”
The Big Day:
In T’Neil’s family, it’s a rule that you have to graduate from a four-year secular degree program before getting married.
So . . .
On her wedding day, T’Neil woke up at 6AM and began to roll her hair, curl her eyelashes, and get dressed . . . in a cap and gown . . . because her wedding day was also her college graduation day!
“Dad and I drank our coffee and cried the whole way to University of Houston,” T’Neil says. “He sat alone in the stands and watched me graduate cum laude with a BS in Psychology. We talked about all of our favorite memories . . . laughed . . . cried . . . and cried and cried.
“Then we went to the church and from that moment on, Dad wouldn’t let me cry anymore. He said, ‘Baby, this is a happy day. No more tears.’
“It was perfect,” T’Neil says. “I spent the first part of the day with the first man I ever loved.”
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Wedding Dress: Kleinfeld’s Bridal
Wedding Photographer: Nhan Nguyen
Bridal Portraits: Jamie Johnson