Alabama Bridal Boutique featured on Storyboard Wedding

{White Dresses Boutique, an Alabama bridal boutique, was recently featured on Storyboard Wedding’s Blog}

It isn’t uncommon for our Southern bridal shop to join a group of talented local vendors to create a gorgeous styled shoot. In fact, styled shoots are some of our favorite things to be part of. However, it is uncommon to do a styled shoot with meaning past creating gorgeousness with some of our friends. Not to downplay any past styled shoot, but this styled shoot meant so much more than making sure every flower was in place, creating a gorgeous table display, or helping a model slip into a rocking dress. This styled shoot focused on the things that are so much more important than the dress a bride picks or a florist a bride selects or the photographer a bride chooses to create their wedding’s memories. This styled shoot was about life – its joys and triumphs along with its valleys. It was about love – the kind of love that isn’t fading and wasn’t fleeting. Kasi’s story is below. And it is worth the read.

From Kasi —

We met through friends in late 2004. Our actual first date was the Taco Bell drive thru and on to the movies. Our year is basically 3 different seasons: tax season, summer and football season. During tax season we keep things very simple due to the amount of time Jamey is at work. We spent time in the evenings just watching some of our favorite shows on DVR, maybe spending time with friends on a Friday or Saturday night and going to church on Sunday. During the summer we spent as much time as we could outside. We would go for walks in the evenings during the week and then just spend time on the porch at night. On the weekends we would either go to Jamey’s parent’s house and relax in the pool or go to the golf course together and enjoy a few hours of riding around. During football season our Saturdays were planned around the football schedule. We would spend most every Saturday with friends cooking, eating and watching football. We also enjoyed the occasional trips with friends or family, mostly to the beach.

We got engaged in April 2008. Jamey had bought the ring months before and was looking for the right place and time to propose. He knew I would be suspicious if he planned anything special so he casually mentioned that we should go somewhere after tax season was over. Since he had never been to Gatlinburg we decided to go there for a weekend and he let me plan the trip. Of course knowing the whole time that he had a ring and was planning to propose when we got there. We had a nice cabin high in the mountain and spent all day Friday and Saturday just sightseeing around Gatlinburg. Jamey had the ring in his pocket the entire time just waiting on the right moment. On Saturday evening we were back at the cabin trying to decide where to go for dinner and as we were standing on the balcony he kissed me on the forehead. I told him I loved forehead kisses and he pulled out the ring and asked if I would like forehead kisses forever. As he likes to tell, my first reaction was “are you serious” and his next comment was “don’t drop that.” Of course then dinner plans were forgotten as I immediately had to call my mom and my sister.

Our engagement was short, we had been together for several years already and there was no reason to prolong an engagement. We decided to get married in the Fall. We consulted the football schedule and picked a weekend and got busy planning. We never wanted anything extravagant and were going to get married at Jamey’s grandmother’s church. The next few months were spent buying a dress, deciding on a caterer, cake, pictures, flowers, etc. During that time we also prepared my house to be sold and put it on the market – it was a busy few months.

Our wedding was October 18, 2008. We had the rehearsal at the church on Friday night and then a small dinner with our family and closest friends. The wedding was short and simple. The ceremony was conducted by Jamey’s childhood pastor and we had a wonderful turn out of family and friends. The reception was in the fellowship hall and we left in style courtesy of Dr. Bob Bentley in one of his vintage cars. We were heading to the airport that evening to spend the night and head out on our honeymoon early the next morning and some friends volunteered to take us to the airport. We ended up meeting several of our friends and family at a restaurant to eat and spend time together that before we left.

The next morning we left out early for the Bahamas. We stayed at the Sandals resort and had a wonderful relaxing week of room service for breakfast on the balcony, days on the beach or by the pool and spending time on the island and wonderful dinners at night. We had prearranged everything before we left and as soon as we arrived at the resort a customer service representative took us aside, checked us in and had our bags delivered to our room. He then took us on a tour of the facilities and when we arrived at our room our bags were there and we had refreshments waiting on us. We went to a gathering with other newlyweds one night while there and each couple had to tell their proposal story and at the end the group voted on a winner. We ended up being voted as the best proposal by the other couples (according to Jamey it’s because of his great story telling skills) which resulted in a couple of t-shirts and a refrigerator magnet.

My mom, Judy Covan, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1982 at 33 years old. I was 2 at the time. She had surgery and chemotherapy for treatment and was in remission until being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2006. She underwent surgery and chemotherapy again at that time and has had 2 other reoccurrences since then.

My sister, Kim Stephens, was diagnosed with melanoma in 1999. She had the spot removed and was told that it had not spread. She had a reoccurrence in December 2007. She underwent 15 chemotherapy treatments and numerous trips to Vanderbilt over the next year. During 2009 the doctors informed us that the cancer had spread to her brain and she passed away in August 2009 at 40 years old leaving behind her husband Chris and son Skyler.

I was at my annual obgyn appointment in December 2009 when the doctor noticed a lump. He was not concerned and thought it would be nothing. Due to my family history we decided to go ahead and have a biopsy and on December 28, 2009 it was confirmed that I had breast cancer. After a whirlwind of doctor’s appointments over the next few weeks I had a double mastectomy in January 2010. Chemotherapy was the recommended treatment but it came with a risk. One of the potential side effects of chemo is infertility and since we had barely been married a year when I was diagnosed we had obviously not started our family yet. After much praying and consulting with doctors, family and friends we decided to plan for IVF treatments in order to have embryos set aside for after the chemo in case there was an infertility problem. After rounds of injections and harvesting of eggs we ended up with several embryos frozen and waiting. I began chemotherapy in April 2010. I had chemo over the next 3-4 months and then started taking Tamoxifen in August 2010. We were told that most people are on Tamoxifen for 5 years and that while on Tamoxifen you should not become pregnant. We consulted with a specialist in at the Kirkland Clinic who said that she felt 12 months on the pill would provide as much benefit as 5 years based on my circumstances. Since we had our frozen babies waiting we immediately started the IVF procedures. After 2 separates rounds we had one failed pregnancy and one failed procedure all together. IVF was no longer an option and it was time to just wait and see what God had in store for us as a family. A month later I was pregnant with Mason. We were so excited and spent the next few months just getting ready for his arrival. He was due to arrive on November 23, 2012 and made his early arrival on November 6, 2012. Two months later it was time to go back to the oncologist for scans and blood work. Everything was normal but he said due to my family history if we were going to have more children we should do it sooner rather than later. At that time we had a 2 month old and definitely weren’t thinking about another yet but knew we did want to have more children. We decided just to leave it up to God and the next thing we knew I was pregnant with Tucker. He was due to arrive on November 23, 2013 – yes one year to the day from his brother’s due date. One day a few months later I was playing with Mason and pinched me in the same spot were my original lump was found and I felt pain. We decided to go back to my surgeon and have it checked out only to find out that it was a reoccurrence. After 2 more surgeries and another whirlwind of doctor’s appointments the lump was removed and treatment was being planned. Chemotherapy was again the recommendation but it was recommended to start right then,while I was only in my second trimester with Tucker. After much thought and prayer we decided to postpone chemotherapy until after Tucker was born. Tucker arrived on November 14, 2013. We now had 2 healthy baby boys, only a year and 8 days apart – life was busy and sleepless but it was time to face treatment head on. After more consultation with the doctor’s it was determined that radiation would be the course of treatment. In February 2014 I started 33 daily radiation treatments – of course right in the middle of tax season. With the help of our families we made it work and 7 weeks later were finally through with radiation.

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