High school sweethearts marry in style
Every once in a blue moon, someone is lucky enough to find the love of their life as a teenager. So goes the love story of Amanda Clemons and Harry Johnson.
The Love Story “My sophomore year of high school, we were both in the same Latin II class. I was 15, and he was 17, and we sat next to each other. The next thing you know, we were dating,” Amanda said.
As students at Loyola College Prep in Shreveport, the two teenagers set off on a journey neither could have imagined would end in a proposal, which in turn ended in a wedding May 25, that guests will talk about for years to come.
Despite the early connection, the relationship went through an evolution. “We went to different colleges. He was a year older and left my senior year to go to Lexington, Va., to attend Washington and Lee [University], and it was just impossible to realistically maintain a long-distance relationship,” Amanda said. “So we allowed ourselves to see other people and go our separate ways when he went to college.”
Yet the bond forged over readings by Ovid and Cicero at Loyola couldn’t be severed completely. “We broke up in the summer of 2005, but I would still go visit him at college, and he would come visit me when I was in Dallas at SMU,” Amanda said. “Whenever we were in town at the same time, we would see each other, and we got back together during my junior year of college.”
After graduation, Harry headed to LSU in Baton Rouge for law school, and Amanda took a job in hospitality at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the French Quarter of New Orleans. “What was nice about working in the hospitality industry was that my off days would be in the middle of the week, so I would just drive over to Baton Rouge to spend time with him,” she said.
Keeping the flame alive was a way of life for the couple.
“We mastered the art of long distance relationships. We were longdistance until we both moved back here to Shreveport,” Amanda said.
After nine years together on Aug. 18, 2012, Harry popped the question. “I totally knew it was coming. He bought the ring in Shreveport and wanted to talk to my father before proposing,” Amanda said. One Friday night, she was expecting Harry to visit her in New Orleans, but a phone call made it evident that a visit that night wasn’t in the plans. He had gone to Shreveport to ask her father for permission to marry her. Less than 24 hours later, he was on his way to his future bride.
“When I got home, he had all of these candles lining the stairs up to my condo. I walked in, and he was standing there with a bottle of champagne and then he proposed. After nine years of dating, it was actually real that we were getting married.”
Real, indeed.
The Plans Planning began immediately, and like any woman who has entertained the white dress fairy tales since childhood, Amanda took care of the most important business first.
The dress. “Before I even knew where we were going to have the reception, I booked my wedding dress appointments in Dallas. We went to Stanley Korshak, and the second dress I tried on was the one I ended up getting,” Amanda said.
The Reem Acra ball gown she chose was the only dress she wore on her special day. It wasn’t, however, the only special part of her ensemble. “I found the best pair of Jimmy Choo heels that had flowers all over them; they were a pop of color. I think they were my favorite thing. I may have liked them better than I liked my wedding dress. They were pink and purple floral. It was a party under the dress,” Amanda said.
Once her dress was ordered, the business of wedding planning really got underway. The couple already had plans to move back to Shreveport when Harry graduated from LSU, but coordinating a wedding expedited Amanda’s move back to the area. She left her job in New Orleans right before Christmas.
She also felt like they needed some help. That is when Bonne Summers, co-owner of Apex Events LLC, came into the picture.
“Their vision was something different but classic Southern,” Summers said. “You try to get a feel for the parents, too. They have a contemporary home and like contemporary things, and Amanda was brought up around that. So although she wanted it to be classic, she wanted a little edgy contemporary, too. That helped me design the look they wanted,” Bonne said.
The Spring Lake home of Amanda’s parents, Carol and David Clemons, was the perfect spot for the reception. “It was gorgeous. They were right in the middle of remodeling their backyard. We started working on their logistics and their vision for the wedding,” Summers said.
Several vendors were used, many of which were local. “We always try to use local vendors, but sometimes there are unique weddings, like this one, and I have to go outside of the Northwest Louisiana area. For example, they wanted to put an acrylic cover on their pool that was custom designed, but no one locally does that, so I had to go to Dallas to get that made,” Summers said.
The event was catered locally by John Cariere Catering. “[John and I] worked really well together. This was basically a three-tiered wedding reception. You had food in the house, out by the pool and then you went upstairs into the backyard. We had to look at accessibility, warming stations and staffing. A lot of logistics went into coordinating the event,” Summers said. “We had to figure out what did they have vs. what we needed to bring in. For example, we had to floor everything because they wanted a carpeted area. We had to build a stage floor, carpet that, and then the reception was on top of that,” she said.
The special touches didn’t stop there. “We had the clear top tent with flowers coming down from the center of the tents. We had an interactive dance floor that projected Amanda and Harry’s names down onto the floor, but it also projected rose petals. When you walked across it, they scattered so it looked like you were walking through the petals,” Summers said.
When the big day rolled around, the ceremony was held at First Baptist Church in Shreveport. Amanda estimates there were between 375 and 400 guests for the affair. A May rain shower began during the ceremony and continued on for the first part of the reception, but this didn’t faze Summers and her crew. “Being in the event planning business, you have to expect the unexpected. We had already thought about this, and where the guests drove in for the valet tent, we had umbrellas ready to escort them in,” she said.
Entertainment for both the ceremony and reception were provided by Bobby Yang from California. “He’s fabulous. It’s hard to explain what he does. It’s a band, and he plays electric violin, but it’s like the violin is singing the words of the songs. He’s played at other family events, and we just love him,” Amanda said.
The magical day was followed by a quick honeymoon to Cabo San Lucas. Harry had his graduation from LSU the Friday following the wedding. The couple are now happily settled in Shreveport, but the fairytale day is still a subject Amanda enjoys discussing. When asked if she was sad to not be able to wear her wedding gown again, she summed up the experience as only a glowing bride could. “I don’t think I’d want to wear my wedding dress again because of how perfect the night was,” she said. “It’s nice to put it away and have it as a memory of that amazing night.”
–Mandy Byrd
