Christ Chapel
Galveston Wedding Venue
Marissa and John’s wonderful love story and incredible wedding details in Marissa’s own words:
We met in our college freshman orientation group called Boiler Gold Rush (BGR) at Purdue University. We were both in freshman engineering and had different strengths in classes, so we helped each other with homework. Above all of that, though, we really got along and had similar senses of humor. We became good friends and started dating a few months after school began. John proposed at my graduation from Purdue. John had already graduated a semester earlier and was living and working in Houston. I had visited him a few times in Houston and was hoping to move down there but was a little nervous. After graduation, we took a photo together out by the engineering fountain. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him in front of my whole family. I was clueless he was proposing even as he started to ask me. I thought he was just being mushy, so I gave him a hug. I quickly proceeded to become a crying mess when he got down on one knee. It was so special for our parents to be there (his parents decided to come to my graduation as well) and witness such a special moment.
I had always wanted to get married in a chapel because my parents were married in a chapel in the mountains of California, and I thought it was very romantic. I also love the beach and really wanted to find a chapel in Galveston since it was near Houston where we had moved after college. I honestly stumbled upon Christ Chapel just by searching “Chapel Galveston” in Google, and after setting up a meeting with the owners, we fell in love with the place. In fact, I walked outside of Christ Chapel after our tour and started to get really teared up, because I knew it was the perfect place. It has so much charm. The stained glass is beautiful, and the owners, Jon and Kelly Charon, are two of the sincerely kindest, most welcoming, hard-working people we have ever met. After talking with Jon and learning a little bit about him (he has an engineering background like us) and his work with the chapel, we were completely set on booking it then. He had restored it after it was abandoned for years as well as fixing it after Hurricane Ike. It was so obvious the love that was put into that perfect little white chapel. I could not have been happier with our wedding venue.
We chose the Garten Verein for our reception venue, because if you take one look at it, you will know why. I already mentioned my favorite color is green, so the Victorian style green detail was incredible, but it was also the perfect set-up. Since it was an octagonal shape, everyone could see the festivities, and it had such an open feel. We were surrounded by beautiful windows, the incredible vaulted ceiling, and perfect lighting. I received so many compliments on both our wedding chapel and reception venue. Another great part of both is they were priced at an incredible value.
Due to the fact that we are both midwesterners, having our wedding in Texas already presented challenges with travel for many of our family and friends. We ended up with about 85 people total at our wedding, which was the perfect size.
I wore an Allure Couture beaded lace gown purchased from Bella-Deur Bridal. My favorite parts of it were the scalloped lace trim on the train and the lace cap sleeves. I think the person who really deserves the credit for its beauty is my seamstress, Kristin Johnston, who was recommended by the store. They had ordered the dress so large, that I needed several fittings and some tweaks. She not only did a beautiful job to make the dress fit me perfectly, but the bustle and attention to detail was incredible. She was also extremely reasonable on her pricing and communicated her ideas very well and answered all of my questions.
Our cake was done by Bob Christensen’s catering company, Carriage Caterers. This was honestly the best cake I have ever eaten in my life. Funny story about the cake, I was kind of wishy-washy about the design, because I really had very few preferences on it as long as it tasted good. I sort of told him I wanted a lace-like look with piped icing and some flowers on top. That man will exceed any and all of your wildest expectations – the cake was absolutely beautiful! It had cascading coral roses down the side with beautifully piped icing all over. We also had a groom’s cake with the logo of our Alma Mater, a Purdue train. It was a simple round cake with the icing done by hand, not a decal or overlay, which surprised me and it looked great! The tiered cake was lemon with lemon curd filling and buttercream, and the groom’s cake was red velvet with cream cheese icing. Both were amazing.
I love flowers, and I wanted my wedding to have as many beautiful flowers as possible, especially since it was springtime. My favorite color is green, so I had green hydrangeas in all of the bouquets. My bouquet had white ranunculus, green hydrangeas, coral garden roses, and other white flowers. All of the bouquets were wrapped in lace from my mom’s veil from her wedding, which was a lovely personal touch. The flowers at the chapel, however, were my favorite part. I asked for flowers on the pews as well as two sprays at the altar. Carriage Caterers did the flowers at both the chapel and reception venue, and they were incredible at both places. He even did the flowers for the rehearsal dinner per my mother-in-law’s request and they were huge and beautiful. I was in a floral wonderland!
I was SO ready to see John by the time we were ready to take photos. The bridesmaids and I got ready at a beach house where we had stayed for the weekend, so we did the “first look” photos on the front porch overlooking the bay. It was really sweet, because John was standing with his back to me, and as I was walking toward him, he accidentally peeked around. Slava got a photo of my reaction, and it was priceless. I don’t think I could have had a bigger smile on my face. The second we hugged, I felt the nerves and stress melt away. He was able to finally see the dress I had been talking about for months, and we could have a semi-private moment before the wedding and festivities began.
There were so many aspects of the ceremony that were emotional. I will list some highlights:
-I love that our moms held hands as they went up to light the unity candles
-My dad did not stop tearing up from the second he saw me in my dress.
-Our officiant was a long-time family friend, so he made the ceremony so personal and special
-My brothers were both a big part of the ceremony. My older brother provided the music, which has always been a dream of mine, and my younger brother read my favorite poem.
I think the most emotional thing for both of us were the vows.
We read fairly traditional vows with slightly more modern wording. They were important to us, and we both knew the impact of what they meant. I started to get choked up when I was saying mine, and John looked at me and took a deep breath and kind of mouthed “just breathe” to me, and I regained my composure. It was such a sweet gesture that I am sure no one really noticed, but it makes me kind of tear up just writing about it.
We tore up the dance floor! I had a blast dancing and socializing with everyone. I was glad our guests weren’t afraid to dance and have a good time. We were dancing like crazy until the very end of the reception! We stayed at an all inclusive resort for 7 days in Negril, Jamaica. It was a much needed very relaxing and beautiful vacation following the most exciting, emotional, and exhausting weekend of our lives!
