Lucy Ryan and Will Presley aren’t afraid of long distances. In fact, it wasn’t until the Fort Worth natives traveled to Brazil for a mission trip that they first met and struck up a friendship. Once back in the States, the two, who were attending different high schools, decided to date. The pair continued their romance long-distance, while attending colleges 1,400 miles apart—Lucy at Pepperdine University in Malibu, and Will at Baylor University. “I think college was a fun time; we were able to be super present and make a lot of awesome friends and be there for each other,” Lucy explains. “We were really lucky. It doesn’t always work out great for other people.”

After graduation in May 2013, Will and Lucy mutually agreed to put down roots in Dallas. Seven months later, Will convinced Lucy to exchange gifts as a couple before the hustle and bustle of the holidays. They ventured to Will’s family lake house for dinner, but her parents told her to be back at their house that evening to welcome her sister, who had just returned from Uganda. “Still, I’m so clueless,” she says. “We go out to his lake house and have dinner, and I just don’t think anything of it.” When she opened up a box to find an iPad mini, she was overjoyed at the generous gift. But once she pressed the power button, she was surprised by the biggest gift of all—a picture of Will holding a ring. When she looked up, he proposed.

The couple shared many memories on their travels, but they decided on a hometown soirée to pay homage to their roots and the church that brought them together. After securing September 20 as the date with Christ Chapel Bible Church, Lucy asked family friend Carson Castellaw, at Bella Flora of Dallas, to plan the event. Next was finding a venue that spoke to their love of the outdoors, but that was also enough of a blank canvas to allow Lucy and her vendors to create a custom look.

After touring Heart of the Ranch, it was an easy choice. Carson and Lucy Diaz-Flores of Bella Flora led the way for the logistics, design, and floral aspects of the wedding day and used the bride’s favorite hue—kelly green—as their starting point. “I give a lot of credit to them. I just gave them a few things that I wanted, and they ran with it,” she says. She met with the floral designers a few times, but the tented reception still took her breath away upon seeing it for the first time. She was stunned at the farm-style head table, complete with a 32-foot-long runner composed of jumbo hydrangea, fluttery garden roses, vendela roses, dahlias, and Lisianthus and accented with fresh greenery. She says it was one of her favorite parts of the decor.

As for the most memorable moments of the weekend? It wasn’t the miles that Lucy and Will trekked that made their story special this time. It was the lengths and distances their guests traveled to be with them that touched their hearts the most. “The best part was having everyone we know and care about celebrating us,” she says.

She was stunned at the farm-style head table, complete with a 32-foot-long runner.