Howey Mansion Wedding | Aaron & Melanie Monkman | Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida

Aaron & Melanie Monkman | The Howey Mansion Wedding | Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida

December 28th, 2019

Aaron and Melanie celebrated their beautiful lavender wedding day at the stunning historic Howey Mansion on December 28th, 2019. Their day was full of love, laughter, and their closest family and friends. I am so thankful to have clients who believe in me and allow me to capture such a beautiful and memorable day. These two brought their families together, celebrated through the rainy evening weather, and partied until the evening was over!

Their Story:
How did they meet? – We have known each other since I was 2 years old so roughly 25 years. His family moved down to Florida from Wisconsin and our family was the first that they met! Aaron and my sister are the same age so we have been close family friends for forever! We’ve always done Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving etc together. People have been telling Aaron and I that we would be together since I was in middle school…we both were appalled and grossed out lol But when I was getting my Master’s at Auburn and he was stationed at Ft. Benning and I was working there he was the only person I knew so we would hang out a lot. He would feed me real food (I was still a starving college kid lol) and let me crash at his place so I didn’t have to drive and wake up early for work. (Back story on that…Auburn is an hour away and a time zone away from Benning. So I had to wake up at 2am, leave at 3am, drive an hour to get there at 4am…which was really 5am EST to be at work. So I greatly appreciated being able to wake up at about 4:30am rather than 2am lol)
So after a while of being there things just kinda….changed and we saw each other in a different way (well it took me longer because I’m dumb lol). The rest is history! I didn’t know how truly happy I could be until I was with him 🙂
Where did he propose? – We went on a mini vacation after Christmas in 2017 to the beach. It was our second to last night and we were making dinner to have at sunset. We sat down and he was asking me what I wanted to do for our last day. I said I don’t know what are our options? To which he replied: “Well I was wondering if you wanted to spend it engaged?” I told him to shut up lol He then told me to stand up while he got on one knee and asked the best question ever. I cried… a lot lol It was perfect.
What do you love MOST about each other? – I can be myself around him. He has literally known me my whole life. I don’t have to hide any of my flaws or weirdness around him because he has known about them for years lol He constantly makes me laugh and makes me feel so beautiful no matter if it is right when I get up with crazy hair and sweatpants or if I am in a beautiful evening dress. He is exactly the perfect person for me. I love every second we get together and can’t believe how lucky I am.
How would you describe your wedding style? – Shades of plum and green; we are having the centerpieces be items from our favorite movies/TV shows. We are having a chair stay open for both of our fathers. Aaron’s passed when he was about 11 years old. Mine passed a little over a year ago.