Meradith Ingram & Alfredo Williams: A Columbiana Wedding

September 14, 2019

How You Met: Alfredo and I (Meradith) had been going to the same gym for years. I don’t initiate conversations with strangers easily, but Alfredo had long hair with a man bun at the time, so one day I walked up to him and asked him if he had a hair tie I could use. (Yes, that’s the best I could come up with.) After that, we didn’t talk for about six months. Then one day he saw me again at the gym and asked me out on a date.

The Proposal: Alfredo planned a nice dinner for us at Fleming’s. I was somewhat expecting a proposal at the restaurant because we had been ring shopping a few months prior. However, after a lovely evening out, we left to go home. My mother called me saying that my dad hurt his back, and she needed help getting in the car to take him to the doctor. When we got to my parents’ house, all the lights were off. There was a trail lit up with candles leading me to a spot where there were pictures of me and Alfredo, and music in the background. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Shortly afterwards, all of my loved ones came up from the basement to celebrate with us.

Favorite Moment: The majority of my family is Italian, so we had a big fat Italian wedding. There is a traditional Italian wedding dance that we do at all the weddings to a song called “Cela Luna/Lazy Mary.” The bride and groom are in the middle of the dance floor, the bridal party, parents, and siblings are circled around them, and the rest of the wedding guests are circled around everyone a larger circle. One circle goes clockwise while the other goes the opposite. I loved it because I finally got to be in the middle where all the fun is!