Real Wedding: Jaimee & Sean
Gown: Something Bleu Bridal
Formalwear: Tuxego
Sean Willcoxon didn’t have to work very hard to win over Jaimee DiGesare’s family. Jaimee’s dad invited him to take his daughter on a date the first time they met, when Sean was catering Mr. DiGesare’s 50th birthday party and Jaimee was the lone single girl among the four DiGesare daughters.
“Would you like to take my daughter out?” her dad asked Sean, while Jaimee blushed with embarrassment. Jaimee, on the other hand, took five years to realize that Sean was the guy for her. Though Jaimee did go on a couple of dates with the cute caterer, they didn’t click, and both ended up dating other people. Sean became involved in a serious relationship, eventually getting engaged to another woman, and when Jaimee ran into him while he was setting up for her sister’s engagement party, she was shocked by her own reaction to Sean’s good news.
“I told my sisters, ‘Downstairs is the biggest mistake I ever made,’” Jaimee says. “I went to bed crying that night, telling my mom what a big mistake I had made.” Jaimee’s mom encouraged her daughter to pray about the situation, and to Jaimee’s amazed delight, a month later she learned that Sean had called off his engagement. She knew that she and Sean were destined to be together. “I never contacted him, and I did not let our families play matchmaker. My greatest desire was for God to put us together,” says Jaimee. Sure enough, eight months later, they were together again. Eight months after that, Sean proposed, literally sweeping Jaimee off her feet as they stood together on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Newport Beach, California. Sean had planned the proposal as a birthday surprise for Jaimee but ended up popping the question two days early because he just couldn’t wait. “It was the most romantic moment of my life,” says Jaimee. “All I could do was laugh and say how much I loved him.”
Sean had worked with the Mazzone Management Company in Saratoga Springs for 15 years, and Jaimee and Sean are both native New Yorkers, so it was easy to settle on the company’s beautiful Hall of Springs venue as the site for their ceremony and reception. Sean’s years in the wedding business paid off, too, since he had long-standing relationships with vendors who helped them put together their dream wedding. Jaimee’s parents also pitched in with a few fun surprises, including a program of color changes and haze for the reception area that kept things lively for the bride and groom and their guests.
Jaimee and Sean celebrated their wedding with a traditional Christian ceremony, encouraging other married couples to recommit themselves to their relationships as they said their vows to each other. They chose Romans 8:28 as their wedding verse and had it printed in their programs and read during their ceremony. During the breathless pause before Jaimee’s entrance for the ceremony, six violinists rose from their seats and began to play the wedding march.
The wedding celebration kept everyone going strong all night long. Drawing from their history together, Jaimee and Sean danced their first dance to “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” by the Jersey Boys, a song they’d heard together on their first Valentine’s Day date as a couple. They also chose a song by Matthew West after hearing it just one day after their engagement. The dance floor stayed crowded all night, and after dinner a jazz band struck up in a funky lounge area off the main reception site with comfy couches for guests to lounge on.
As she danced with her new husband among the crowds of people who loved them both, Jaimee knew her prayers had been answered. She was finally married to the man of her dreams.
Jamiee & Sean's Advice
1) Be ready to compromise. You are two different people, and you’re going to have different ideas about how certain things should be.
2) When things get stressful ~ and they will! ~ take a minute to remind yourselves that it was falling in love that got you into this mess, and it’s a pretty good mess to be in!
{Other Professionals}
Cake & Catering: Mansion Catering
Invitations: Pearl Grant Richmans
Reception Site: Hall of Springs