In planning, couples must decide what matters the most

One thing every couple must do at their wedding is decide what matters the most for their special day. For a couple with nearly five years of hindsight, and another couple planning a wedding this year, perspectives may differ.

Stevie and Judd Reed were married on Feb. 14, 2014.

Stevie, a Jefferson Elementary School teacher, said she valued the reception hall and the photography the most. Judd agreed.

“We just wanted everybody to have the best time possible,” said Judd, who is a detention officer at the Lincoln County Detention Center.

Judd and Stevie had both their wedding and reception at the Holiday Inn Express Suites. They chose A Moment Photography to take their photos, a top priority on their Valentine’s Day wedding day.

“Just to capture the moments,” Judd said. “We have multiple photo albums we’re always looking through.”

Stevie agreed, saying the couple still has canvases hanging up in their home.

Looking back, “we would still spend the money on the reception hall,” Stevie said, and she doesn’t have buyer’s remorse for the photography either.

“I definitely think the photography is probably the most important,” Stevie said.

But if the couple were getting married this year, Stevie said, she’d actually take capturing her moments even further with videography. She’s since heard of photographers who create a video of the wedding day, from the beginning to the end, and set the captured moments to music.

“We didn’t even film the ceremony, which is something we wish we would have done,” she said.

The couple cut costs on food, only serving appetizers to their guests, along with a popcorn bar and chocolate-covered strawberries.

“I was pretty proud of us for our food choice,” Stevie said.

One thing that still sticks with Stevie is her Valentine’s Day wedding.

“There’s still people who come up to us and say, ‘I still remember that day,’” she said. “It’s kind of sappy, but it truly is the day of love.”

Judd asked his dad to be his best man — someone he considered a true mentor growing up. It stuck with Judd’s father, who “still talks about it like it was his best day,” Stevie said. “I hope our son asks Judd to be his best man.”

The couple waited a few months to take their honeymoon. It allowed Stevie to finish her school year, and with Valentine’s Day on Friday that year, the couple had the weekend to relax and be with family. Plus, the cash wedding gifts helped fund the trip to Cancun.

“A lot of people have to pay for both” the wedding and the honeymoon at the same time, Judd said.

Tenesia Grimsley, who works at the Pop Corner, and Sam Wallace, a screen printer at Whitetail Cycle Sport, are planning a May wedding.

The couple have been together since Grimsley moved to North Platte in 2013 for a job near her sister and met Wallace soon after.

Grimsley described Wallace as someone who doesn’t want a lot of attention on him.

“I don’t want to plan just for myself,” she said. “I want him to be super comfortable. I don’t want him to feel super overwhelmed.”

The couple decided on a private ceremony with just them, necessary witnesses and a photographer. They’re then planning to host a reception with their North Platte loved ones soon after. When they make their yearly trip to visit Grimsley’s family in Georgia in June, her family will also host a reception for them there, she said.

Celebrating with family and friends is the most important part of the couple’s wedding plans. But despite her low-key plans, Grimsley also wants to accommodate. She wants to make sure she invites all of Wallace’s family.

“I want them to feel like they’re involved in the wedding,” she said.

While she would love her family to visit North Platte, she wants to celebrate with all of her relatives and knows some of them couldn’t afford the travel to Nebraska.

Despite the plan for a simple wedding, Grimsley is still planning to wear a bridal gown.

“I don’t care if I get married at the lake,” she said. “I don’t care if I get married in a shack. I’m not going to feel like a bride if I don’t have a wedding dress.”

Regardless of what couples value on their wedding day, Judd had one piece of advice: “Just cherish it,” he said. “Because we still talk about it to this day.”

Grimsley said cherishing the moment is also her focus.

“I want to focus on us being married.”