Choosing the vegan lifestyle certainly has its obstacles. Like any life choice, you will find others who do not agree with it and/or will not accept it. Newly married couple, Emelia and Eric, faced a tough obstacle when Emelia’s parents refused to help fund their wedding unless in was a meat and dairy affair. The happy couple stood firm on wanting a vegan-friendly wedding, and decided they would simply pay for it themselves. Though this meant a much smaller, less expensive wedding, it ended up being a unique and amazing experience that reflected them as a couple. Here’s their story:

My fiance, Eric, and I had been together for 4 years by the time we got married. We had already felt like a family, but this ceremony was the final step in making our family real. We had agreed on a large ceremony with dancing, music, and lots of good vegan food. My parents had agreed to pay for our dream wedding, on one condition: we have to serve cheese and meat. For some reason my mother and father were being so traditional, they let their rules and ‘society’s expectations’ come before their own daughter’s values. My fiance and I were shocked. We both agreed that we would be extremely offended by any animals being served as food at our special day. There was only one thing to do– we had to have a small wedding. So we decided to have a simple garden ceremony at Chapel of the Bells, have lunch with our guests at a local restaurant, and then head to the beach for some relaxing.

Our ceremony was absolutely beautiful. We couldn’t have known how wonderful it was going to be. The people there did an amazing job helping us along the way and it went perfectly. Our flower girl was the first to walk out as Over the Rainbow by IZ played. Her trail of white and pink rose petals was so pretty against the green walkway. Then Eric stepped forward and I came out the door, all eyes were on us. We walked slowly from two different points to come together on the bridge. We joined hands and entered the gazebo where Robert married us. We had written our own vows, and sealed it with a kiss. The ceremony was by far my favorite point in the day.

We all showed up at Freshies restaurant around 12:30, all of our 13 guests were hungry for some lunch at one of our favorite local places to eat, Freshies! We sat at 3 different tables but I could see everyone. We laughed a lot and felt just so happy to finally be married! Since Freshies has vegan and vegetarian menu items in addition to their regular menu, my husband and I were both able to order a vegan item. Three of our guests also ate veggie out of respect to us. It was a lovely lunch and even our youngest guest was satisfied.

We have been to the lake with our families many times but have never seen it this busy! I guess there were other people who also wanted to enjoy this beautiful day! The weather was so great and the water was just beautiful. We had a table set up with some refreshments and our vegan wedding cake. We had ordered it from the vegan bakery [Azna] in Cameron Park. It was hard to relax with all those people on the beach but pretty soon we were having fun with our family and friends and didn’t even care about how crowded it was. Our vegan marble cake was delicious and we took some stunning photos around the lake and trees. Most of all both Eric and I were so happy to see everyone who came to support us on our big day and we will never forget how loved we both felt on our wedding day.

A wedding is about love and commitment, and that is what our focus was on the whole day. Even though our wedding was far from what we had wanted or dreamed about, it was a day just for us.

Thanks, Emelia, for sharing your story.