In March of this year we decided it was time to reevaluate our business goals and sell our vintage wedding pews. I knew for sometime that change needed to happen. I had spoken with a gentleman in California who rented out church pews there. We had considered working together and creating something similar to his business plan here in Texas. But then Covid hit and all wedding plans came to a halt.
At the beginning of this year, as Covid cases were decreasing, I turned my sites to finding a new home for our precious church pews. My first desire was to locate a venue that would use them frequently. Then my hope was to work out a deal where the venue would house the pews plus use them as needed for a monthly rental fee. I had some very eager venue coordinators wanting them, but in the end, we decided to just sell them.
It was a tough decision because we originally bought these beauties for our first daughter's wedding. My soon to be son-in-law and a couple of strong friends drove to a small church in north Texas to load them onto a trailer and bring them back to Abilene. We then used them in both of our daughters' weddings. They were perfect and unique. Not only were they old, but they were in very good condition. And they were slightly curved which gave them a very elegant feature that I have not seen in other wedding pews to this day. On the end of each pew was a simple, but gorgeous cutout (as seen in picture here). The gentleman from whom we purchased them, was nice enough to shorten them so they would not be too long. In the end we purchased 10 pews ranging in length from 8-12 feet. As I reflected on how special these pews were to our family, I decided I could part with them, only if I kept one as a sweet reminder of our family's special memories.
So that leads to the day I sold them to a Miss Lauren. I was a bit skeptical when she approached me because, unlike other inquiries, she was willing to pay the full amount. But when she explained that her boss from Todd Events in Dallas, had given her the ok, I quickly looked up the company. To my surprise I found that she was in the same business as us, but on a much grander scale! She and her company created fairytale weddings and events. Although Haley and I do that too, we tend to stick to the DIY version of a fairytale wedding!!!:) The photos I saw on @Toddevents blew me away. They were the type of photos Haley & I use as our inspiration pics when creating spaces for our brides. Well all that to say, I was sold! This company was not only legit but they too, saw beauty and value in our church pews.
Lauren forwarded my name to Gretchen who set up the truck for pick-up and worked on the financing. In the course of emailing these 2 women I discovered that they would be using them for an undisclosed VIP client. "This just keeps getting better!," I said to myself! Of course, my mind quickly imagined Sandra Bullock or Matthew McConaughey throwing a big bash and somehow needing my sweet church pews for their shin-dig. I mean after all, both celebs have homes in Texas and Todd Events originated in Houston, so it seemed like a possibility!
The day the big truck came to pick up our little gems was a hot spring day in Dallas. My husband agreed to go with me in case they needed some help lifting these heavy pieces. Again, Todd Events proved just how big they were. Not only did they send a very large enclosed transportation truck but sent 2 men to take care of everything. My husband and I only needed to unlock the storage unit and their expertise completed the task fast, efficiently and professionally! We were relieved and a bit giddy afterwards. We were astonished at how easy this was and I could now say goodbye to my 2nd storage unit payment since it's contents were now on the way to what I imagined to be a heavenly dwelling for all things beautiful!
Craig (my hubby) and I decided to stop by MiDia for an early dinner and special drinks to celebrate (see my fancy drink movie to the left.) I then posted on FB a farewell to my beauties and honestly forgot about them being used for something special sometime in the future...until this past Friday. I happen to be scrolling through Instagram when I came across a post about the Gwen Stefani/Blake Shelton wedding @Toddevents. At first I didn't think much of it. But once it sunk in, I began to question if this could be the "undisclosed event"? I frantically began to search. Yes, Todd Events had worked on the wedding! Oh my! And then I see "Todd Crystal Lauren" on a thank you post from @Gwenstefani and I realize I need to reach out to Lauren and see if our pews were a part of this wedding. After spending a lot of time locating her, I finally say, "Hi Lauren: Just wondering if you’ve used the church pews that I sold to you yet? A part of me is hoping they were used for Blake Shelton’s wedding😊" She quickly replied with an obscure response. I shared it with my daughter asking her what she thought. We both agreed that for whatever reason, the recipients still needed to be anonymous however, we believed our pews were in that wedding somewhere. So the hunt continued. Finally, I came upon a new video that @Gwenstefani posted of Carson Daly sharing his debut as the officiant for the Shelton/Stefani wedding. It originally appeared on the Today show and was 6 minutes in length. I feverishly watched the video, on the verge of tears as the ceremony was described. Alas, at the 54 second mark, there were our pews!!! I jumped for joy and then rewound it, stopped on the pic of our beauties, and enlarged the photo so I could really investigate them. Yep, it was them! Our pews were indeed a special part of the wedding!
According to the video, Blake Shelton built the chapel especially for his bride. It housed our pews and the special guests that attended their big day.
Never would I have imagined that a tall funny country singer from Oklahoma and a glamorous beauty from Cali would end up with our church pews. But I'm sure happy they did! Cheers to the Bride & Groom! And thanks to Todd Events for this fun adventure!