On her first date with Ryan Morris, Gina Roidopoulos felt fireworks. When they shared their first kiss on the Fourth of July, she felt them again—and this time, they were accompanied by an actual light show overhead.

That their relationship took off like a bottle rocket, then, was no surprise. “We were pretty much inseparable—Ryan jokes that we moved in together after our third date,” she says with a laugh. “That did not happen!”

Before their first anniversary, they co-founded a metal-manufacturing business. Soon after, they purchased a house together. After closing, they went to visit their new abode, where Ryan welcomed Gina home with a ring. She said yes on their new front porch.

Though she didn’t know exactly what she wanted her wedding day to be like, she knew what she didn’t want. “I’m half-Greek. And in the Greek community in Dallas, if you invite one Greek, you invite 1,200 Greeks,” she says. “I knew I didn’t want the huge wedding.”

A photo of the May River Chapel at the Montage Palmetto Bluff resort in South Carolina sealed the deal. Gina hired Wendy Kay of Birds of a Feather to coordinate. Her first task? Wrangling the bride, whose work schedule was so intense it left little time for wedding planning. (Gina also handles the marketing for her family’s wholesale dessert company, Cheesecake Royale, and runs an animal rescue group called DFW’s Furgotten Friends.) “Wendy would text me, ‘Are you alive?’” Gina laughs. “Finally I said, ‘We’ve got to get this done.’”

Together, they planned the wedding in less than two months, with Gina never having visited the venue in person prior to the big day. Her biggest piece of advice for brides? “Hire a good planner that does styling, too,” she says. “And trust your vendors.” As someone who likes to entertain, Gina’s biggest priority was making sure her guests felt taken care of, so she curated elaborate welcome bags and planned events for the days leading up to the wedding.

On April 12, 2017, Gina and Ryan’s 36 closest friends and family members watched them exchange vows. As they exited the chapel, a Gullah choir sang “O Happy Day”—and it truly was. Florals by The Southern Table set the scene for dinner, which was held on a candlelit, screened porch. Gina opted for a subdued Southern color scheme and a traditional Anna Maier lace dress for the ceremony. For the reception, she changed into a pink Marchesa gown that she’d found a week before the big day.

Exactly one month later, the new Mr. and Mrs. Morris hosted a reception in Ryan’s hometown of Royse City for 200 family members and friends. This time, Wendy ditched the neutrals and embraced Gina’s beloved bright colors. Guests enjoyed a casual evening complete with food trucks, lawn games, a butt sketch artist, and—because Gina’s family knows a thing or two about sweets—a 22-foot “dessert table to end all dessert tables” with cakes, cookies, doughnuts, and more.

And what other way should a monthlong celebration of Gina and Ryan’s love end but the way it all began: with fireworks.

—Jessica Otte

"I knew I didn't want the huge wedding."