Emily & Dylan

The Venue

How did your Love Story begin?

Emily’s (the bride) mom’s (Jill) best friend (Becky) from high school has a son who Dylan (the Groom) was friends with. Becky drove the boys up to Pennsylvania to spend the week at Woodward, a BMX/Skateboarding camp. Jill and Becky created plans to meet up at Hershey Park, since Emily and her family lived in Philadelphia and they would only be an hour away from each other. As we arrived at Hershey, Dylan instantly fell in love as he saw Emily. The two of them hung out together that whole day at the Park, riding rides and enjoying ice cream. The 14 and 15 year old’s then had a long distance relationship for close to 6 years, visiting Dylan every couple of months along with Emily’s family that also lived in Kentucky. Eventually, Emily moved back home to Kentucky to be with her true love and they started a new chapter of their lives together.

Tell us all about the proposal!

Emily told Dylan she wanted professional photos of them as a couple, and on their anniversary, Dylan set that up. At first they took photos by a lake with a beautiful gazebo, then they went down to a bridge where he had took Emily years ago and given her a promise ring. There were red lights (which is our favorite color) wrapped around the bridge and it was a complete surprise when he went down on his knee to ask for Emily’s hand in marriage.

What was your favorite part of the engagement and planning process?

Our favorite part of the engagement process had to be the cake and dinner tastings!

What was the most challenging experience while planning?

Honestly dealing with the COVID pandemic was stressful and changing our venue 2 weeks before our date in order to still be able to get married was scary, but everyone pulled together and we made it happen! Personally we think the most challenging part of planning was getting on people’s attendance of who’s coming and who’s not. We had a ton of people not show or change their minds 2 days later.

Do you have any advice for engaged couples planning their wedding?

We know it’s almost impossible to not stress during wedding planning, but just know it goes by really fast and a ton of this small things you’re worrying about won’t even matter on the special day, so just slow down and have fun.

Tell us about your experience working with us!

We highly recommend McHale’s! They became our knight and shinning hero by saving our wedding and making it happen during COVID. Our wedding coordinator, Brittney was so quick and fast with the questions and concerns we had, she is such a lovey women. The staff was extremely sweet and helpful. We didn’t have to lift a finger they were always checking on us asking if we needed anything. The owners were even on the floors and helping out which you don’t always see. My sister told me she went to the bar and did not realize they already called last call and cleaned up everything, but the bartenders ran to the kitchen and grabbed her another one anyway. I’d also like to give a shout out to the chief and kitchen staff, the food was fabulous. And I wish I remembered the names of the two that helped with setting up and cleaning up and helping me go down the aisle and getting us drinks so we always had something in our hands, they were spectacular! Thank you all for everything!