Rebecca and Mike’s Vintage Wedding at Strong Mansion

Becca and Mike have one of those stories that movies are made from, for real. They were a delight to meet, and as they started telling me how they met and fell in love, I was so excited to get to share the day with them. It was also my first time shooting at Strong Mansion, which proved to be on of the best places to film. Although the story below the video from Becca is a bit longer than usual, READ IT! :) It will be sure to brighten your day. Congrats Becca and Mike!

"Mike and Becca met about twelve years ago at church. The two had been asked to partake in a special Mother's day skit, with Mike as the actor and Becca and her brother, Cam, as the musicians for the accompaning song, "Child of God". Becca recalls the first time she saw Mike. He walked through the door for their first rehearsal and seemed to have a glow about him. Though Mike had been cast as the "prodigal son" for the skit, he was far from the character he portrayed.

Once the rehearsal had ended, Becca's Mom, Cynthia, said she hoped and prayed that Becca would one day marry a man like Mike. Mike was a fun-loving, attractive, 21 year-old, but given the 7-year age gap that stood between them, Becca never in her wildest dreams would have guessed she was staring at her future husband. Given that she was only 14, the thought of dating him never even crossed her mind. She simply thought that he was a nice looking, respectable young man, but far too old for her.

From time to time, Mike and Becca would see each other in passing, but there was never much more than a “hi” or “how are you” said between them. Most of the conversations took place between Mike and Cynthia, as I’m sure he still saw Becca as a young girl. Throughout the years, Cynthia would recall what a nice young man Mike was and continued to encourage Becca to find a man with similar qualities.

In 2005, Cynthia, Becca, and Cam began attending another church. About that same time, Mike relocated to Canada for a job offer. As a result, Becca and Mike did not keep in touch for several years, and even when they finally became Facebook friends, they had very little communication.

Fast forward five years…

In July of 2010, Becca found herself frustrated by the dating world and searching for something more. So in an attempt to find true love, she registered on eHarmony. Over the course of a month, Becca was matched up with several men across the world, but none of them seemed to catch her attention.

..........

Approaching 30 years old, Mike’s high hopes of meeting that special someone had begun to wane. After several years of exhausting all attempts to find a wife on his own, Mike turned to God for some help. Late one night, Mike decided to go for walk to pour out his heart to God about the situation. He prayed earnestly that God would direct his steps to the woman that He had in mind for him, fully aware that God knew exactly where she was and what it would take for their paths to cross.

Two weeks later, Mike got a flat tire and called his friend, Bill, to drop off a wrench he needed. As the two of them were installing the spare tire, Mike proceeded to vent to Bill about his long standing challenge of meeting someone. After listening awhile and considering the situation, Bill responded, “Mike, I think you need to swallow your pride and give eHarmony a shot. It’s going to put you in touch with all kinds of people with similar values, who you would not typically meet otherwise.” So Mike bit the bullet and signed up that night.

One week later, Mike was notified of a suprising match on his eHarmony account. That sweet, young, 14-year old, Becca, he had met nearly 9 years ago, had become a beautiful, young 23-year old who was passionate about the same important things in life as he was. On August 23, 2010, Mike and Becca had their first date which ended up as an all day event. They kicked the day off with a cup of coffee at Panera, followed by a Sunday morning church service. Next, they paddled their kayaks down the Monocacy river and ended the evening at a Mexican restaurant in downtown Frederick. After several hours of seamless conversation and plenty of laughter, Mike and Becca realized they had finally found the connection they had both been searching for. It was clear to them that a second date was in order. Becca was so enthralled by Mike on the first date, that she texted Cam afterwards saying, "I think he could be the one!"

Ten months later on July 1, 2011, Mike proposed to Becca on the beach at sunrise and was delighted to hear Becca respond with a resounding, "Yes!" The two of them could not be more thankful to God for so creatively bringing them together and they are excited to to embark on their lifelong journey of learning to build their lives on His everlasting love."