It wasn't an everyday occurrence for Saron Mitchell to encounter a handsome stranger in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. But it happened when she spotted Neal Henderson, a fellow local she hadn't met before, at a bar one Tuesday night in 2012. Seizing the moment, she said hello. "To save myself embarrassment in case he was on a date, though, I introduced myself to everyone there," she recalls.
Neal was thoroughly amused. "I thought she was doing a psychology experiment," he says. "But I knew immediately she was something special." That night, he drove her home, casually mentioned he didn't believe in marriage—"I wouldn't marry you anyway," Saron quipped—then asked her out for oysters. Eight months later, they were engaged. "What can I say?" asks Neal. "After meeting Saron, I changed my tune."
As a sometime event designer, Saron was well suited to the task of throwing a wedding. And though, to quote Neal, she nearly drove him crazy, he was a huge asset, too. He works for his family's wooden-beam business, and built the ceremony benches and reception tables with his father. As a team, the couple also crafted hundreds of ceramic Mississippi-shaped ornaments to give away as favors.
On April 26, 2014, Saron and Neal welcomed 300 loved ones to her parents' working cattle farm in nearby Picayune. Guests followed the cows' well-worn path to the ceremony site and, once everyone was seated, Saron's childhood girlfriend sang Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" as a tribute to the bride's late father. Then Saron made her entrance on her stepdad's arm. "Beauty just seemed to radiate from her," recalls Neal. Other friends read scripture and poetry before the pair said "I do" in front of a Methodist minister.
Afterward, celebrants enjoyed a family-made feast. At the alfresco cocktail hour, they sipped honeysuckle vodka with blackberries and mint, and noshed on pickled okra, pepper jelly, and pimiento cheese prepared by Saron's brother, a professional chef. His dinner menu included local favorites like braised pork belly, grillades, grits, and mustard greens grown just a few feet away. Then came a dessert bar of pound cakes, pies, fruit, and pecan-praline syrup, all contributed by Saron's female relatives and best friends' grandmothers, followed by dancing inside a barn to a live band.
There was just one detail Saron and Neal overlooked: where, in a house full of visitors, to spend their first night as newlyweds. Earlier that day, a quote by novelist Louis de Bernières was read at the ceremony: "Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away." As they snuggled on the only empty bed available—a twin mattress on the front porch—what was left over felt pretty darn special.
Watch Saron and Neal's Wedding Video
