Luke Pfleiderer and Kelsey Pfleiderer's Wedding in Islamorada, Florida

The story of our wedding

My dear husband, Luke, and I had been together for nearly 3 years when he asked, "Will You?" on the top of a lighthouse in May of 2017. We deeply adore Costa Rica, and knew we wanted an Island "come as you are" vibe for our Best Day. We love our families and knew we wanted all of them there, so eloping to Costa Rica was out of the question. Luke found a resort in Islamorada that had the perfect touches of island foliage. One look and we were signed, sealed, delivered! In our 11 month engagement, the venue faced Hurricane Irma. Unfortunately, the hurricane brought immense damage to the resort, as well as our own home and place of work in Boca Grande, Florida. While everything around us was up in the air, we held fast to one another in the understanding that as long as we rode the waves together, nothing else mattered. In November of 2017, we were hit with an even bigger storm. I was diagnosed with an incurable benign neurofibroma-tumor on my spine wrapping around and cutting into my right psoas muscle. I underwent an emergency surgery involving spinal deconstruction, partial tumor removal, hardware placement, and a spinal fusion. That rollercoaster turned into 5 months of bed rest, 8 weeks of Physical Therapy, and a whole ton of wedding planning from the comfort of my bed. All the while, everyone wondered if we would postpone the wedding. We could not think of a more clear picture of the true meaning of marrriage than walking through this storm together and conquering it with even brighter smiles and even deeper love-and an even bigger understanding of truly "having each other's backs"! :-)