Michael is a city boy from West Memphis. He is the only child of a totally devoted family. The kind that plans everything to the T. His family is really small. You can actually count his cousins on one hand. Michael attended First Baptist church since he was born. His high school was large also. Michael’s extra curricular activities included band. He graduated with about 300 other people. After graduation, he attended Arkansas State University with no idea what he wanted his future to hold.
Larryanna Lowery Fletcher is a country girl from Eudora. She is the baby of a family of six. Four of her brothers are only half brothers. Her parents were both married before. Shortly after her birth her parents divorced. She lived with her mother, yet her father was always an integral part of her life. She attended a small Methodist church. You could count the members using only your fingers once. She was very active in her high school. She was a cheerleader, ran distance in track, and keep stats for the basketball team. She also graduated valedictorian in her class. After school, she had it all plan out to attend Arkansas State Univeristy to become a news broadcaster. By the way, college is were she got the name Lou.
How is the world did these two meet?
This is a long story. Lou was already at Arkansas State for two years before Michael arrived. She attended the Wesley pretty regularly. She became real good friends with a guy name Will (who by the way is the nicest guy ever). Will had a brother named Tim (who by the way is the coolest guy ever). Tim and Michael entered ASU at the same time. They later became best friends and Tim began to bring Michael to the Wesley. Tim was bound and determined to hook us up, regardless of the fact that I was dating at the time. Michael says he saw me and knew he would date me. I never really remember him until Tim brought him over to my house to help me move. Then, I thought he was a dork. He saw sparks at first sight though. I think it was just from me electricuting him when he was removing a ceiling fan.
Tim had it all planned out to the second. He was going to get Michael to take me to the Valentine’s dance at the Welsey (sorry Baptists us Methodists like to shake our booty). The only problem is he wouldn’t. I was actually scared. I don’t know why. He knew I would say yes. Just minutes before the dance, I was crushed. Michael was a no show. I finally told Tim I was going to call him and ask him myself. Of course, Tim said no because it would crush his man hood. Tim went and got Michael to come we had a great time. That night we kissed for the first time. He asked me to be his girlfriend. I said yes. The only problem neither one of us knew if the other was serious.
The story is not over yet. Summer came and Michael had to go home to Casscoe (where his parents now live). I broke it off. The old boyfriend came back into the picture. I went wild and got my tongue pierced. I hoped it would turn the goody two shoes Michael to another direction. No, he just tried harder. Thank goodness his hard work in trying to get me back worked. We got back together and have been there ever since.
We got married right? No, we are not done yet.
My mom got really sick. So I moved home to help her and aslo the fact I was just playing in Jonesboro and getting nothing accomplished. Michael moved to Stuttgart with his parents. He began working at the local radio station. Long distance relationships did not work for us. It was very hard. The late nights talking on the phone and the stress of taking care of my dying mother was paying a toll on me. We tried to break up several times. This time, I was not going to give up.
February 14, 2002 we finally got our act together.
After lots of talks of marriage, we finally made it official. We had already bought or picked out our rings earlier. Michael drove from Stuttgart after to work to propose and take me out. I will never forget this moment. I was sitting on my bed and Michael got down on both knees. Yes both knees. He didn’t know what knee to get down on so he just did both. After this we went to Western Sizzlin for supper and off to the lake for a nice romantic evening. It was the best night I ever had.
June 15, 2002–THE MAIN EVENT
We planned a weeding in only 3 months. I didn’t see the purpose of taking years to plan a wedding that may last 30 minutes. I found my dream dress off of Ebay. That is right my wedding dress was bought off E-bay for only $70. The flowers for my bouquet were made of flowers from my uncle’s funeral. The flowers for the flower girl were actually flowers from the family wreath on my mom’s casket. Did I mention I was cheap? We had homemade invitations. We made our own program and catered our own wedding. The only reception food that was expensive was the wedding cake because we made the groom’s cake. We had the smallest cheapest wedding. It didn’t matter, we were in love. I wouldn’t change anything about it. 
The Bridesmaid (L to R): Annette Jones (my sister-in-law), Whitney Gayfield (sister), Amber Fletcher (cousin), Meredith Hayley (college friend), Kristen Hale (Michael’s cousin) 
The Groomsmen (L to R): Kevin Sumpter (friend), Tim Hoggard (friend), Justin Nowlin (cousin) and Jason Burton (friend)
Our Journey
