Jessica Fleming & Ryan Oden

To celebrate our one-year dating anniversary, Ryan and I (Jessica) took a weekend trip to Chattanooga. After arriving in town, we ate lunch at a local restaurant, explored the downtown area and enjoyed every square inch of the Chattanooga Aquarium. We then headed to our hotel to rest our feet and to change into nicer clothes for our dinner reservation. On the way to dinner, Ryan suggested we walk on a nearby pedestrian bridge that crosses over the Tennessee River. I exclaimed, “This is the most romantic thing we’ve ever done!” I had no idea what Ryan had planned. We reached a bench at the midpoint of the bridge, and Ryan asked me to sit next to him. He opened a box containing his grandmother’s engagement ring and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. Unbeknownst to me, he had already asked my dad for permission to marry me.

My grandmother loved to quilt. In fact, she was such a prolific quilter, everyone in my family has a quilt made by Grandmother. When she passed earlier this year, I knew that I wanted to honor her during our wedding ceremony. To honor Grandmother, we decided to do a quilt-wrapping unity ceremony. During our unity ceremony, our officiant wrapped us in one of Grandmother’s quilts and talked about the importance of friends and family to our marriage. I cannot imagine a better way signify the unity in our marriage and to honor Grandmother.