Bridal Bliss: Danielle and Ademola's Alabama Wedding

Bride: Danielle Elise Rouson, 32, Change Management Consultant

Groom: Ademola Adedeji Ayodele, 34, IT Security Consultant

Married On: February 6, 2015

Wedding Location: Mobile, Alabama

Wedding Style: Traditional

Have Faith In Love
“I knew he was the one after our first Christmas together,” admits lovely bride Danielle, who met her new husband Ademola in church. “I found myself itching to tell him the words ‘I love you,’” You see, Ademola walked right into her life in the most unexpected way. He walked into her church, and she noticed him immediately, because he was the only person there that day that she didn’t recognize. He had just moved to Chicago from Nigeria and decided to attend that service that day. Little did she know, he noticed her too. Despite their instant connection, it would take months for them to muster up the courage to speak to each other. “Our church offers several different services on Sunday, so Ademola and I didn’t always attend the same service,” Danielle recalls. “Though we had never talked, every Sunday we would go to church looking for each other. Some Sundays we ended up at the same service, and some Sundays we didn’t. He later told me that on those days we attended the same service he would look at me from across the church and hope to catch eyes with me.  But he never saw me look his way.” Finally, one day at a Young Adult Ministry meeting, Ademola saw a chance to introduce himself and he made his move. That’s when sparks really began to fly.

Happiness Interrupted
A month into their friendship, Danielle had to tell Ademola that she was moving back to her hometown in Alabama. To her surprise, he promised to keep in touch, and he did just that. “We would spend hours on the phone daily,” she recalls. “I left Chicago in April of 2011 and in August 2011, Ademola flew down to Mobile and asked me to be his girlfriend. That’s when we began our 4-year long distance courtship.”

This Is The Place
During one of his visits to Mobile, Alabama to visit Danielle, he asked her to show him where she would want them to get married. She took him to St. Joseph Chapel on the campus of Spring Hill College. “He immediately fell in love with the beauty and serenity of the church,” she recalls. “He said he felt something special there and agreed that someday it’s where we would get married.” Fast forward one year later. The lovebirds had just returned to Alabama after a road trip to Florida to visit Danielle’s family. While they were in Florida, Ademola had secretly asked her dad for his daughter’s hand in marriage. While back in Alabama, Ademola asked Danielle to take him back to the church she wanted to say “I do” in. She noticed he seemed nervous on the way, but she couldn’t figure out why he was behaving so strangely. “We parked on the campus near the church and held hands as we made our way through the beautiful campus,” says Danielle. “As we neared the church, he took my hand and placed it on his chest and I could feel his heart thumping madly!” When Danielle asked why his heart was beating so fast, he replied, “This is what you do to me!” Just before they made it to the church, he stopped near a beautiful tree-shaded nook and after a beautiful speech about their future, dropped to one knee and pulled out an engagement ring! See their lovely wedding weekend and share their love!

Photos: Elle Danielle Photography