holly brazeal Archives - SAM Agency Newsletter

There’s no shortage of events that the coronavirus crisis has affected. Everything from primary elections to the Olympics has been postponed. Though we’ve gotten used to rescheduling, there are some moments that only happen once.

Holly Brazeal Logan had spent months planning the perfect wedding for April 4, 2020. The day she returned from her bachelorette trip, she realized everything must change. Events had been limited to groups of 50 or less, so Holly and fiancé Jonathan decided to move the ceremony to Holly’s parents’ house.

“From the beginning, we felt very strongly that April 4 should be our wedding ceremony date,” Holly said. “We really didn’t want to postpone everything.”

With the help of family and friends, the Logans’ new wedding venue came to life. Twinkle lights were strung on trees, the dining room table became the head table, and shelves became silver displays. There were flowers, wedding cakes, food, and drinks. To stay under the groups-of-10 guidelines, the couple invited only immediate family members plus the Maid of Honor and Best Man.

“There were so many surprises throughout the evening, and that really made it so special,” Holly said.

The surprises included a rehearsal dinner via Zoom that nearly all of the wedding party was able to join. During the virtual dinner, Holly’s dad played a video he had made of the couple, and everyone gave their toast. On the wedding day, Jonathan’s dad surprised the couple with a retro Rolls Royce for the newlyweds to make their exit. There was also a drive-by parade lasting more than half an hour, wherein family and friends drove by the home to wave and wish the couple well. During the wedding day dinner, Holly’s dad played a video montage that had clips of more than 60 friends and family who had sent in videos to show their support and love. And at the end, Holly’s neighbors lined the streets holding sparklers as Mr. and Mrs. Logan drove away at the end of their celebration.

“Yes, it was sad to see our plans have to change,” Holly said. “But on this side of everything, I don’t feel like we lost anything. Jonathan and I gained so much and felt our friends’ and families’ love and support way more than we could have ever imagined.”

To share their day with those who couldn’t attend, the Logans live-streamed the ceremony and parts of the wedding via Instagram. There were over 500 devices that viewed the stream, and the comments and posts are something the couple will have forever.

Originally, the couple was to honeymoon in Mexico after the wedding. Instead, they spent two nights in the honeymoon suite at Pursell Farms and are rebooking their Mexico trip for later this year.

“Thanks to so many wonderful people who care about us, what could have been a sad and difficult day turned out to be so joyful and perfect,” Holly concluded.

Plenty of us have a love affair with tacos and margaritas. But have you ever heard of them leading to a soulmate?

Junior Media Buyer Holly Brazeal met her now-fiancé, Jonathan Logan, through a pair of mutual friends. It wasn’t long before the two found themselves intertwined in the same Tuesday Taco Mama group. Happy hour led to happy times, and Holly and Jonathan began dating a few months later in October of 2018.

“We knew very quickly that we had something special that we could see lasting,” Holly said. “I wouldn’t go as far as to say ‘love at first sight,’ but you can sense when a connection has real potential.”

Though the couple had never met until the summer of 2018, they were practically destined to. Both came from Birmingham families, and both went to Briarwood High School, graduating only two years apart. Even with Briarwood being a smaller school, the two didn’t cross paths until last year.

As time wore on, Holly and Jonathan spent a lot of time together and with each other’s families. By the following spring, they had begun talks of marriage.

“We both wanted to get married, but I had no clue when it would actually happen,” Holly said. “Jonathan is such a procrastinator, I was betting on later rather than sooner!”

When it came time for Holly’s annual family beach trip, she was sure no proposals were in the works. The family was celebrating a baby shower, Father’s Day, and several birthdays all in one trip. It seemed there wasn’t room for anything else.

On their last day at the beach, the entire group descended to the shore to take the annual family photo. Holly and two of her closest cousins always went out a little early to take photos with one another. This time, Jonathan accompanied them, camera bag in hand.

Following the cousin photos, Holly and Jonathan took a few with just themselves. After the last shutter click, Holly’s cousins began to walk off, and the photographer started to back away.

Holly wondered what on earth was going on.

Jonathan turned to face Holly, hand still gripping the oversized camera bag. He reached in and pulled a small, black square out of its inner pocket. Setting down the bag, he knelt, opening the box to reveal a radiant diamond ring.

As Jonathan proposed, and Holly jubilantly accepted, her family rushed to the shore to congratulate the couple on their new engagement.

“All twenty of my family members on the trip had known,” Holly recounted. “Somehow, they managed to keep the secret for an entire week. Looking back, there were some weird things that happened, but nothing that made me expect Jonathan was planning to propose.”

One of these strange occurrences was her mother’s trip to the store for “extra cheese” on the penultimate day of the trip. In truth, she was going to blow up the balloons for Holly’s surprise engagement reception.

The family celebrated the happy news with balloons, champagne, and themed décor. It was an enchanting end to what was already Holly’s favorite family tradition.

Holly and Jonathan will wed April 4, 2020, at Briarwood Church followed by a reception at Vestavia Country Club. They will then depart for their honeymoon at a private resort in Cancun, the same resort where SAM team members Grace Hatcher and Hayley Grisham honeymooned.