Match Made in Heaven | Southern Illinois Wedding

The Couple

Douglas Bicket from Sparta, Illinois.
Melanie Shannon from West Frankfort, Illinois.

How they met

After being single for six years, marriage was not in my vocabulary. Early 2016, I began online dating and quickly learned my way around dating at age 50+. Most importantly, I knew what I didn’t want more than I knew what I wanted.  

But in September, I began to grow restless with this routine. So, I did what I should have from the very beginning: I prayed and asked God to allow me to find someone who had a high moral standard for life.  

Early October I received a Match.com message that someone had favorited me. It wasn’t long until I got a message from him.  By this point, I had received a lot of messages, so in my mind, this was ‘just one more.’ Well, Doug quickly assured me that he was indeed truly single and he was serious about finding a mate. I really began looking at his profile.  He was a widower, 61 years old and lived over an hour away. We had most things in common, and after a few days of writing back and forth he convinced me to let him call. His voice was fantastic, and I quickly agreed to a date.  

The First Date

I was impressed that he was on time. He was strikingly distinguished and smelled wonderful. We later found out we both were wearing the same in men/women versions Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue. When we walked into Red Lobster, he was friendly to everyone, spoke easily to people as we were waiting and was kind and friendly. Our conversations were deep and enjoyable. He kept up with my quick wit and seemed amused at my twisted/quirky sense of humor. I sensed he was patient and long-suffering, not quick tempered, judgmental or arrogant. He also tipped the waiter very well.  But most of all, I sensed that he would be a tower of strength and  a great protector. That was what I was missing and what I craved. For the first time, I felt security when his hand touched mine and when his hand was on my back as we walked through a door. My gut instinct was to not take this man lightly, as he had attributes that mirrored that of my late father’s. Those morals and values were so rare that I had given up that they even existed.  

The Proposal

It took me about three days before I knew he was the one for me, and I blurted it out to him within a week and half that I wanted to be his wife. He let me know his prayer was that God would let the right one know that she wanted to be his wife.

He asked me to marry him after asking my daughters if he could have my hand in marriage, assuring them he would do everything in his power to keep me safe, secure and happy. The rest is history.

The Wedding

Our wedding can be summed up in one word:  FUN!  He sang “I Just Can’t Help Falling in Love” as I walked down the aisle with my brother on one arm and my youngest daughter on the other. After the ring ceremony, I happily sang “At Last” to him. My middle daughter was the photographer, and my son-in-law videoed the ceremony. Our grandsons were the ring bearers, and his sons were ushers.  

My best friend of over 35 years helped me decorate the church with flower arrangements for the pews that I made along with all corsages and my bouquet. During the winter months, I wrote quotes on the black chalkboard-style place mats that we used at each place setting at the reception. I love sweets and created a ‘sweets’ display of all kinds of cookies, cupcakes, cakes, and breads of all types that were baked by myself and a friend who owns a catering company. Another catering company provided a luncheon-style buffet.  Doug and I handed each guest a plate as they went through the buffet lines.  

We kept our wedding short with the luncheon reception immediately following so it would not interrupt our guests’ day more than 1.5 hours. I still hear compliments on how customized our wedding was. We did not go by any guidebook. At our age, we felt we could do what we wanted! We were a match made in heaven with Match.com being the facilitator of our coming together!

Vendors

Photographer: Britni Bateman Photography // Catering: The Butcher’s Block in Sparta // Desserts: Blackberry Baking and Catering