Category Archives: Van Damme Weddings

I love a love story and this one is as good as it gets:

Donna and Dan met 20 years ago while working together.  Although he lived in Arizona, Dan travelled to California frequently for business and over the next 12 years he became a great mentor and friend to Donna. They both made career changes, which took them to different parts of the country, but remained friends. Eventually they lost touch, only catching up through mutual friends.

From the bride: At a mutual friend’s urging, Dan and I reconnected via telephone in 2009.  Dan had divorced and returned to Arizona; while I had never married and was living in Tennessee.  We always adored one another for our paralleled values and after getting swept away on a 3-hour “catch-up” phone call, we agreed to never lose touch again and reach out to one another every month or so. Monthly phone calls turned into weekly phone calls that turned into daily phone calls.   On one call, Dan said, “If you lived here, I would ask you to have dinner, have coffee, or play golf.”  The air got slightly awkward for just a moment, and feeling like I needed to respond, I said, “And I would say YES, YES, and YES!”

And that was it!!  The nature of our relationship shifted instantly with those four little words.  About a month later I visited Dan in Arizona.  We had dinner, had coffee and played golf.  We knew, without reservation, that we would spend the rest of our lives together.

Four months later I moved to Arizona and we married nine months later.  Engraved inside Dan’s wedding ring are the words that changed our lives…..”YES, YES & YES!!”

And the Dragonflies:

When Dan went to Tennessee to move Donna to Scottsdale their U-Haul had a big blue dragonfly painted on the side. When stopping for gas they noticed a blue dragonfly that kept buzzing around their heads.  They commented that THAT blue dragonfly matched the dragonfly painted on the U-Haul truck. The second day of traveling they noticed a dragonfly that was attached to the antenna of their truck. Although the dragonfly was dead he appeared to be hanging on for dear life and stayed attached for two days. A couple of days later he was taken away with a rainstorm. After arriving in Scottsdale the couple were having coffee by the pool and looked down to see a beautiful dragonfly on the pool. That was it-Dragonflies were their talisman. Donna incorporated the dragonfly in her apple green and chocolate color palette, in the invitations and as die cut escort cards on her wine glasses. The wedding cake by Sedona Cake Couture followed the green and chocolate palette. Ken Heflin of Events by Showstoppers created Donnas’ exquisite bridal bouquet of cymbidium orchids. The bride and groom and family members enjoyed cocktails and Hors d’oeuvres on the L’Auberge de Sedona deck. Bill Barns provided guitar music. An intimate dinner in a private dining room of L’Auberge followed. Pamela Duffy photographed the event.

Event design, planning and coordination by Margaret Van Damme-Van Damme Weddings