Olivia Black & Charlie Mercier: A North Shelby Wedding

June 22, 2019

How You Met: Charlie and I were in the Chelsea High School Band together and started out as just friends. He played trombone and I played clarinet. We started dating when I brought him a milkshake after he got his wisdom teeth out my senior year (2013). We dated through college at the University of Alabama and marched in the Million Dollar Band together. We knew the whole time we wanted to get married, so once we both graduated college, we tied the knot.

The Proposal: Charlie knew I wouldn’t want the proposal to be in front of people, so he set it up in his apartment. He had a bunch of pictures of us around a new Bible (with my new name engraved on the front cover) opened to 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, the verses describing the characteristics of love. He told me how much he loved me, and got down on his knee.

Favorite Moment: My favorite moment from the day was the surprise daddy/daughter dance my dad and I did. We are not sappy people, and we wanted our dance to make us laugh instead of cry. So I asked my high school dance teacher from my dance studio, Karen Guarino, to choreograph a fun dance for us. It started out as a typical slow-dance to a sappy song, then the music skipped and we broke out into a dance. We were laughing the whole time, and the whole room was screaming. The final surprise was when my two sisters joined us, and we ended the dance in a big family group hug.

Favorite Details: My two favorite wedding details were Big Al’s appearance and the milkshake bar. We asked Big Al from the University of Alabama to come for an hour at the reception because we were so involved with the football team in the band, and we love the school so much. He came and danced, did a congo line and took photos with everyone. And we had the idea to have a milkshake bar because we started dating over a milkshake. Happy Catering Company had a whole setup at the bar with chocolate, vanilla and strawberry milkshakes with lots of different toppings. It was so popular that some of the caterers had to drive to the store to get more ice cream to keep from running out!

What You Are Doing Now: Charlie is teaching marching band and low brass at schools around the Birmingham area and giving private instrument lessons. I am a labor and delivery nurse at Brookwood Baptist Medical Center in Birmingham.