Lord of the Rings Wedding
Ron and Tonya – May 4, 2025
From the Bride and Groom Here comes the part about the sugar…When Ron first moved to Tennessee back in 2012, he moved in to the house next door to Tonya in Oak Ridge. One day while making sweet tea, Tonya noticed that she was out of sugar. She decided to check to see if perhaps her new neighbor had some she could borrow. So, she headed over to see. She knocked on Ron’s door and soon, he answered. Tonya introduced herself and told Ron it was nice to meet him. Ron likewise replied and Tonya asked if he perhaps had two cups of sugar she could borrow for her sweet tea. After checking his cupboard, he realized that he too was out of sugar. He told her that he had none to spare and they gave their pleasant goodbyes. Afterward, Ron made a trip to the store to purchase two bags of sugar so as to have an extra on hand in case Tonya returned asking again. But, she never did…They did remain friends and spoke from time to time. Ron moved to Knoxville and it wasn’t until a few years later that they reconnected.
Well… years later after living in Knoxville, Ron posted a picture of a husky on his Facebook page looking for a new home for the pup. Tonya saw it in her feed and just happened to be looking for just such a furry companion. She asked if he could meet and bring the dog over to her home to take a look. He agreed and they met back up again after years of not living next door to one another. One thing led to another with talking on the phone and they decided to meet to see where things would go. To speak as Ron would tell it, “Dating was hard when we each had young children. We went for a walk in a park and down to a dock on the water of the river. That was technically our first date. I noticed how Tonya’s brown eyes reflected gold in the sunlight. I told her how beautiful it was. Eventually we had our first kiss which led to a relationship which led to me asking Tonya’s father, Don for his blessing, which led to me purchasing a ring…”
So… Ron had plans for how he wanted to propose and had been kicking around ideas and talking to his middle son, Luke about it. He planned for a few weeks on how he wanted to pop the question. However, before Ron could propose, Tonya struck the question to him one night while making dinner in the kitchen. Caught off guard, he responded with a yes and went to his car where he had hidden the ring and brought it in to tell her all about how he’d planned to propose. They both had a good laugh and danced in the kitchen to their favorite music together the rest of the evening and grinning from ear to ear! “Here we are now ready to begin out next adventure together as husband and wife.” -Ron
We live in East Tennessee and wanted to do something close enough that the father of the bride could get to it easy since he does have mobility issues. Same for the mother of the bride. The groom’s parents and oldest sons and their families all live in Georgia but are willing to travel. The bride’s oldest son and his family live in North Carolina but will also travel. So we decided perhaps to have our wedding at the UT Arboretum. After looking into it, however we decided that the venue was simply too large for such a small wedding party and such few guests, so we began looking for something still outdoorsy, but a bit more quaint and Tonya ran across Chapel in the Hollow. We found it to be perfect for our day!
On our wedding day we are looking forward to finally making our commitments in front of our family and friends and all the fun of it all. Being able to really mean it when we say “other half”.We both wanted woodsy. We are looking forward to being in nature and doing the whole Lord of the Rings theme.
Yes this is a special date for us while on a cruise, we met a couple who are Star Wars fans too. They suggested we should do a Star Wars Day wedding when we get married. Although our theme will be Lord of the Rings for our special day, we intend on celebrating in Star Wars style and fashion for our first anniversary. I (Ron) have always been a huge Star Wars fan. I’ve met many of the actors and even designed a tabletop RPG game that some of our wedding guest friends gather to play with us from time to time. May the Fourth Be With You will now be our day going forward. I’m sure we’ll celebrate different themes to our anniversaries throughout our years together, but that first one will serve as our reception.
Tonya and I are typically homebodies except for our yearly vacationing. We typically go to Myrtle Beach or on a cruise or both. Generally, we will spend a weekend making dinner and dancing in the kitchen to our favorite playlists. If we hear a song that stands to emotionally connect us to a moment of our life together, we’ll usually add it to our playlist. We sing together and dance with one another for fun.
We also have shows we watch before bed after getting the kids off to sleep, such as The Love Boat or ER currently. We typically like the older shows. We watched The Dick Van Dyke show, I Love Lucy, Little House on the Prairie, Highway the Heaven, The Andy Griffith Show, Monk, Friends, Big Bang Theory, and a few others. I (Ron) have been a collector of Star Wars figures and memorabilia for years. Though I have since sold off or given away most of my collection through the past several years, I still have some things that I keep for myself. Tonya collects books mostly from her favorite author, Quinn Loftis. She reads the Grey Wolf series and will purchase special items related to the books. We are also Harry Potter fans and I have a shop on Etsy dedicated to making custom Hogwarts acceptance letters, hand-carved wands, and other items. I run a few different tshirt shops as well. We have fun coming up with new ideas for tshirt designs.
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