Carol & Chip: A Formal Wedding in Atlanta, GA

After a seven month engagement, Carol and Chip celebrated in grand style at the Grand Ballroom at the Georgian Terrace Hotel. The Bride Carol Spann, 36, senior real estate director The Groom Darren (Chip) Joyner, 36, a vice president The Date July 9 Chip and Carol became close friends in 2002 while volunteering for a mutual friend’s election campaign. During that time, Chip was working at one of his family’s restaurants in the airport, and Carol stopped by to visit him one afternoon. “I thought he was incredibly handsome, and he made me laugh constantly,” she remembers. It was then that Chip asked Carol out for their first date: a picnic in Piedmont Park to watch an outdoor movie. “He prepared this wonderful picnic, complete with wine, grapes, and lawn chairs!” she recalls. Two years later, the couple was on their way to a Los Angeles airport and decided to stop by The Ritz-Carlton to have a preflight cocktail. As they stood on the terrace next to the water, Chip dropped to his knee and asked Carol to marry him. A tearful Carol accepted -- and Chip’s family (he’s from L.A.) emerged ready to celebrate with champagne to toast the newly engaged couple.