Bride: Shannelle Armstrong, 42, Director of Public Relations, Sears Holdings
Groom: Sean Calvin Fowler, Sr., 42, Distribution Driver, Sysco Foods
Married On: May 12, 2012
Wedding Location: Secrets Silversand Resort, Riviera Maya, Mexico
Wedding Style: Beach Chic
You Can’t Judge A Book By Its Cover
After Shannelle had a few failed attempts at finding true love online, she’d practically given up on using dating sites to meet good men. Then, her dear friend Raquel talked her into giving it one more try because she herself had luck and believed Shannelle would too. Shannelle took her friend’s advice and set up a new profile. In it, she said she was looking to meet “a nice, caring, hard-working brother that liked the man he saw in the mirror.” About three months later, she received a message from Sean. She was a bit taken aback by his blurry photo, but something told her to give his profile a good read. “I flipped through his pictures and saw that he was actually cute — very cute,” says Shannelle. “He wanted to date and get to know someone he would enjoy spending time with as well as the possibility of a lifetime commitment. I liked that he put it up front that he wanted to settle down.”
They corresponded via email for about an hour and then Sean gave her his number. Shannelle felt so good about him that she called right away. “He had such a beautiful voice, and he asked me questions about me and not about what I do or where I went to school,” she says. They talked for hours and she woke up thinking about him the next day. After a truly romantic first date, Sean told Shannelle he’d like to date her exclusively if she’d have him. By then they’d learned that they lived, literally, around the corner from each other and grew up in neighboring towns in Georgia. A few weeks later he picked her up from the airport after a weeklong business trip. “He held my hand the entire ride home,” says Shannelle. “I knew then that I wanted to spend the rest of my life holding his hand.”
I Fooled You
One evening when Sean picked up Shannelle for a romantic date, she was surprised to find a Louis Vuitton box placed on the passenger seat. Excited, she happily thanked him for her new purse. He then asked her to reach into the cup holder compartment and get his cell phone charger. When she opened it, she saw a ring box sitting there. “I just screamed and said yes,” says Shannelle. “The purse was just a distraction! He told me that dating after his divorce was tough and he prayed to God that if He would send him a good woman, he promised to take good care of her. He then told me that soon after we started dating, he knew God had heard his prayer.” Talk about a heartfelt proposal! See the photos from Shannelle and Sean’s destination wedding now, and share their love.
Photos: Clifton Henri