Ashley Paige Photography

Paige + Brandon | Destination Wedding at The Island Resort at Fort Walton Beach

May 3, 2022

This wedding was an absolute dream! It was my first destination wedding and it most certainly has left me with a craving for more. Before I talk too much about how incredible this beach wedding was, I have to tell the back story of how I came to know Paige and Brandon. A couple of years ago, I did a Mother’s Day session giveaway and Paige’s sister (Katie) was the winner. About six months later, I was at the dentist making small talk with my dental hygienist when I discovered that hygienist was Katie’s sister, Paige. Fast forward two years and I’ve photographed four different couples that were in attendance at this small destination wedding. It has been such a blessing and so much fun to capture this group of friends and family. I can’t wait for you to scroll through this special day below!

Every single detail from this wedding had meaning. My personal favorites were Brandon’s tie clip in his Dad’s handwriting and his Dad’s shoes.

Paige made sure to make her dad tear up with this precious picture on the back of his tie!

Popping champagne has never looked cuter!

A beach wedding ceremony doesn’t get prettier than this.

Three of the other couples I’ve photographed! We’re just missing the kiddos for the two on the left!

If you ever want the definition of golden hour in a picture…Here it is!

How They Met

“Brandon and I both grew up in Fauquier County. Our sisters are the same age and have been best friends
since elementary school so we always knew of each other. Brandon is about 3.5 years older than me so
we were just a different stages in life. Zach (Katie’s husband) started working at Dominion with Brandon and told Brandon that he should reach out to me since we were both single. After being persistent I finally gave him a chance and the rest is history.

The Proposal

After six years of dating, two of those being long distance while I was in hygiene school, he finally proposed
the night before we left for Destin, Florida in October 2021. He bought the ring at Hartman’s right across from where I work. He had called Katie to let her know that he was buying my ring and she would need to be available that evening to make sure what he picked out was acceptable lol. They were both walking down main street at the sam time I got off work and he somehow managed to pull it off. I never even suspected a thing. Jump to Friday, we both go to work as normal, but we had plans to meet family for dinner before we left on our trip to FL. Katie insisted I take my niece to get her nails done after work so we did. I rushed home to change so we can make it back up to town for dinner.

I get home and walk inside and there is a package sitting on the counter (Brandon always gets the mail
when he gets home) so I ask what that was and his response was “I don’t know it has your name on it” so I grab the box and open it. Inside was a small dog bowl full of kinetic sand. I of course yelled, “we’re getting a
dog?!?” and he responds with “umm no just look in the sand”. Sure enough there was the ring box and he was behind me on one knee.

The running joke for years now is that he’d put my ring in the sand on our OBX trip and if I dug far enough
in the sand I might find it. Needless to say we both love the beach and have always wanted a
destination beach wedding.

That dream just became reality.