Meredith Talley and Nathan (Cotton) Smallwood met as undergraduates of Texas A&M through mutual friends. Though there was an instant attraction, Cotton didn’t work up the courage to ask her out until two weeks before graduation. However, it only took three dates before Meredith knew that he was the ONE! The two dated for a year and eight months before Cotton proposed.
     Cotton proposed to Meredith on a picturesque beach in Surfside Beach, Texas. The couple had made a list of all the things that they wanted to do before the summer was over; one of the things was a romantic horseback ride on the beach. Cotton arranged this special date for Meredith on the last Saturday of the summer.
     The young couple rode along the beautiful beach, admiring the sand and the gorgeous blue water, but as the hot August sun increased, Cotton suggested that they stop and catch their breath and rest the horses. Right away, Meredith noticed a familiar blanket spread across a wooden bench and a champagne bucket with a bottle of wine a few yards away. “I don’t even remember dismounting and tying up the horses. I knew what was about to happen and I was so nervous,” said Meredith. Amber, a good friend of Meredith’s, had set the scene for the proposal. Cotton kneeled down on one knee and asked Meredith to be his wife: she of course said, “Yes!” “Amber seemed to appear out of the sand with a camera and the biggest grin I’ve ever seen,” said Meredith.
     After the proposal, they drove back to Houston where Cotton had secretly gathered all of their friends for a celebration. “To this day, I can’t believe that all of my friends knew about the proposal beforehand and no one slipped up and told me!” she said.
      newly engaged couple’s most challenging decision was setting a wedding date. They wanted an outdoor wedding, so the months May through August in Texas were not a consideration because of the heat factor, and they had the challenge of fitting the wedding and honeymoon into Cotton’s medical school schedule. They finally agreed on September 22, 2007.
     Cotton and Meredith decided to get married in the College Station area because Texas A&M was the place where it all began. Meredith also had fallen in love with a little white chapel at the 7F Lodge the very first time she had laid eyes on it, so she knew exactly where she wanted the wedding. The 7F Lodge gave them the inspiration for their colors; neutral beiges and browns with a shot of bright fuchsia to appease Meredith’s girlie side. She also approached finding a wedding gown with the same attitude as the rest of the details of the wedding. She wanted a beautiful gown without anything fussy. Meredith also wore pearl earrings with the simple but elegant gown. When Cotton proposed, he presented Meredith with the ring in an oyster shell and told her that he had been looking for his pearl. In representation of that idea, Meredith gave gifts of pearl necklaces to the moms and to her maid-of-honor.
     Because of Meredith and Cotton’s strong circle of family and friends, the wedding turned out to be simply amazing. “With their help, the wedding was so much better than I could have imagined on my own; it truly made our wedding a labor of love,” said Meredith. Meredith’s mother put her artistic talent to work on the wedding invitations, corsages, boutonnieres, and other creative touches to make her daughter’s wedding perfect. “She was a perfect wedding planner, but I’m pretty certain that she never wants to plan another wedding in her entire life,” said Meredith, with a laugh.
     One of Meredith’s top priorities was to find a good photographer that could really capture the essence of the evening. The couple wanted a photographer that just blended in and took pictures so that no one even noticed the camera. They found the perfect photographer, Alicia Cargile in Brenham, Texas. The pictures really conveyed the flurry of activity and the excitement of the evening. “I’m so proud of our photos that I’ve shared them with everyone, even strangers,” says Meredith.
     The ceremony started on a beautiful September night, right after the sun slipped behind the chapel. The guests were provided with lemonade and water on the porch and allowed time to visit until the wedding was to start right at sunset. Meredith and her maid of honor dressed in one of the bed and breakfast cabins nearby. Meredith’s mom called her five minutes before they were ready to start so she could walk down a gravel trail to the ceremony site. When Meredith and her brother were little, they loved to ring the church bell to signal the beginning and the end of the church service. In the spirit of those memories, Cotton rang the bell in the tiny 7F chapel to signal his bride to come down the aisle. As Meredith slowly walked down the aisle, she locked eyes with Cotton, and knew that everything would be OK. “He could make me feel calm in the middle of a hurricane,” said Meredith.
     Meredith’s brother married the couple. The ceremony was so touching that she actually carried a tissue with her in case she needed it, but ended up giving it to her brother. At the end of the ceremony, to bless their marriage, they kneeled on the steps of the chapel as their families joined hands and their mothers came forward and placed their hands on the newlywed’s shoulders.
     While the family took pictures on the steps of the chapel, the guests went into the pavilion and helped themselves to a dinner of the best barbeque in Texas. Cotton and Meredith didn’t want their guests to leave their wedding hungry. The Texas barbeque with all the sides and iced tea was perfect for the casual atmosphere. As the guests dined on wonderful food, they were entertained with a slideshow of the couple, created by Cotton’s mother. For the first dance Cotton and Meredith selected an upbeat song that made everyone feel like they were in love; “You are the Sunshine of My Life” by Stevie Wonder. Meredith’s father was so nervous about the father-daughter dance that he and his daughter took private dance lessons to practice. “Even with the lessons, I still caught him counting under his breath,” laughs Meredith.
     The wedding cake, made by Meredith’s mother was an amazing cupcake tree made out of glass circles stacked on top of each other. The groom’s cake was called “death by chocolate,” and had two Aggie rings on it that were accurate depictions right down to the class year.
     Weeks later, many guests told Cotton that their wedding was the most beautiful, intimate wedding that they had ever attended, and it was said over and over again that the wedding was casual but classy from beginning to end.
     The honeymoon was by far Meredith and Cotton’s favorite part of the whole wedding. Cotton had been so busy studying and working during most of the other planning, that this was finally their time to just hang out. They spent eight days and seven nights on Nanuya Island in Fiji, and as they relaxed in the beautiful scenery and watched the unbelievable sunrises and sunsets, it brought to mind the beautiful sunset during their “Sunset Wedding.”