J. Andrew Photography

We are so excited, humbled, honored and blessed to have finally found a way to actively show our appreciation and support to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. Several months ago, Joslynn and I were invited to participate in a Brides Across America event hosted by Jenny Barker of Little White Dress Bridal, which has since been rebranded as www.idoandbabytoo.com. For those of you who do not know what Brides Across America is… it is a 501 (c)(3) pending non-profit organization founded by Heidi Janson, owner of a bridal boutique in New Hampshire. Heidi wanted to do something more for military brides who could not have a wedding, due to deployments or not being able to afford one. In some cases the couples did get married, but only had enough time or money to get married by a Justice of the Peace; often times before one or both of them were deployed. Unfortunately, this is all too common… in fact Joslynn and I also have relatives who have never gotten the chance to have a real wedding. So Brides Across America was created to provide couture wedding gowns to military brides all across the country, and they have given out well over 5,000 gowns to date! You can find out more about this fantastic organization at www.bridesacrossamerica.com.

While volunteering at the event at Little White Dress, we had the privilege of meeting some of the the sweetest, most appreciative and humble brides that we have ever had the opportunity to work with. Jenny had offered to give away any prizes that we wanted to offer, and little did we know that doing so would lead to something much grander and so absolutely amazing! During the course of the event, Jenny raffled off an engagement photography session and a larger prize of full day wedding coverage that we had donated. When the winners were selected, we could not have been happier with the two couples who won the prizes, and through the planning processes with them, it became apparent that much more needed to be done. Right away the brainstorming began and after lots of research, dozens upon dozens of conversations with some of the best vendors around, and some amazing testimonials and information from our military brides, “An Officer And A Wedding” was created! As a team, we will be sponsoring two military weddings each year, along with providing special military pricing year round to military personnel for our services and products. Our team will also be partnering up with other organizations to volunteer for other military related charities and fund-raisers.

The first couple our group has had the honor of serving are Eileen and Miguel, who were the recipients of the wedding coverage prize way back at the Brides Across America event, and currently we are in the process of accepting applications and nominations for the second of two biannual Military Wedding Scholarship Awards that we will give out every year. We know many of you probably want to know more about Eileen and Miguel’s story, but rest assured that we will be telling you all about it, but you will just have to be patient for a bit longer!

This week we launched an official Facebook page www.facebook.com/anofficerandawedding, Twitter account @OfficerNWedding, and you can also contact us by phone 661.805.7835 or by email at anofficerandawedding@gmail.com. We are also currently working on a full blog/site that will go live in the near future, and will include testimonials, information on upcoming events, how to apply, photos of our military couples and a whole lot more. For now, please go to our Facebook page and “like” us, repost the link on your own page, and help us out by telling everyone you know about it! If you are interested in helping out, donating, sponsoring our couples in some way, or just have questions or ideas to share with our team of vendors, then please contact us by phone or email!

Aside from myself and Joslynn, who is sponsoring “An Officer And A Wedding” through Behind The Ceremony… our creative, dedicated, generous and totally all around fabulous team consists of A House of Flowers, Kevin Rush Entertainment, Fairy Godmother Day of Coordinating Service, Roger “The Lounge Guy” Martin, Sit-N-Grin Photo Booth, Anamie’s Sweets, Matinae Design Studio, Sugar Rush Candy and Confection Bars, PM Custom Catering, The Randall House… and last but certainly not least… Fino’s Menswear! Our team has grown leaps and bounds over the last several months and we continue to receive phone calls and emails from people who would like to get involved… so thank you to our team, everyone who has offered their support, anyone who passes the word along, and anyone who has yet to join our cause. Most importantly the biggest THANK YOU goes out to all the military personnel past, present and future and their families, who sacrifice and dedicate their lives to provide a better life for all of us! “An Officer And A Wedding” is dedicated to all of you!

A real military couple... these love birds both serve our country in the armed forces!