Arden Dortch & Elijah Long: A Vestavia Hills Wedding

May 18, 2018

How We Met: Eli and I (Arden) met at Oak Mountain Presbyterian Church in 2008. All of my middle school memories include him always being the funny guy. When we led worship together our sophomore year, he told me that even though he liked ALL of my friends, he was going to marry me. I always knew Eli to throw out a dramatic statement, so I rolled my eyes knowing I would never risk our friendship by dating him. Well, he proved me very wrong and on November 2, 2013, he took me on our first date! It was fall of my senior year, and I was again adamant that I would not go to college with a boyfriend. Very quickly I knew I was wrong as I had already fallen for my best friend.

The Proposal: When we started dating our senior year, I (Eli) started keeping little memories throughout our relationship like concert tickets and notes. Almost four years later, I walked Arden into my apartment, and sitting on the table was a shoebox that I kept everything from our relationship in. We went through it together, and I got down on one knee and told her that I knew I was going to marry her when I was 16 and I had loved her since I was 18. Then I asked if she would marry me.

Favorite Moments: Eli and I and both of our families LOVE to dance so at the end of the reception, the DJ played “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” from Dirty Dancing and Eli did the iconic “lift.” Eli also drove us away in his dad’s stick shift jeep. He drove this in high school when we first started dating, so we took the top down and doors off to drive away like old times!