NEED TO KNOW
- New Orleans Saints linebacker Nephi Sewell and his spouse Maddie hosted their long-awaited wedding ceremony celebration in Draper, Utah, on Friday, July 11
- The celebration got here greater than three years after the couple spontaneously received married in a courthouse ceremony in December 2021
- They had been joined by 250 friends for the event, together with the groom’s two brothers, fellow NFL gamers Penei and Noah Sewell
Greater than three years after spontaneously marrying in a courthouse ceremony, NFL participant Nephi Sewell and his spouse, Maddie Sewell, celebrated their wedding ceremony on a much bigger scale with all their family and friends.
The New Orleans Saints linebacker, 26, and Maddie — who share son Ziah, 2, and daughter Irie Aroha, 1 — held their long-awaited celebration on Friday, July 11, on the Siempre resort in Draper, Utah. They had been joined by 250 friends for the event, together with the groom’s two brothers, fellow NFL gamers Penei and Noah Sewell.
Maddie tells ipromiseyoumedia the marriage — which was deliberate by Irene Katzias of Irene + Co Occasions — was “the social gathering we’ve all been ready for.”
“Since we’ve already been married and constructed our life as a household, this celebration wasn’t about beginning over. It was about lastly attending to share our story with everybody we love,” she says.
Based on Katzias, the couple’s imaginative and prescient was an “elevated social gathering” with a black-and-white coloration palette, accented with hints of silver. The ceremony unfolded at golden hour, adopted by an out of doors cocktail hour — the place friends loved the sweeping mountain views — and a candlelit dinner beneath the celebs.
The evening closed out with a reception, that includes a customized dance ground, disco wall accents, lounge units and a ceiling set up that “made your jaw drop,” the occasion planner tells ipromiseyoumedia.
“The ceremony felt like a fairytale — romantic, transferring and utterly true to them. And the reception? It was pure pleasure. Considerate particulars met full-out celebration,” Katzias provides. “Each visitor felt the love within the room. You could possibly see it. You could possibly hear it. You could possibly really feel it.”
The couple notably wished to honor their respective cultures on the celebration. In a nod to Maddie’s Māori heritage, Nephi realized and carried out the haka, a ceremonial dance, as a tribute.
Maddie says it was one of the crucial significant components of the day for her. “He realized each step, and seeing him do it with a lot coronary heart set the tone for the whole lot that adopted. It felt just like the deepest signal of respect and love,” she explains.
She, in flip, honored Nephi’s Samoan roots by performing the taualuga in the course of the reception.
“These moments weren’t simply stunning to take a look at. They had been highly effective,” she notes of the standard dances. “They had been us bringing our cultures collectively and displaying everybody precisely what this marriage means to us.”
Maddie and Nephi, who first met as teenagers in Hawaii, additionally included Polynesian parts of their celebration, from the meals to the floral leis.
“Each [wedding detail] alternative was about displaying their story and creating a sense friends would always remember,” Katzias says.
The couple and their friends loved a veritable feast on the wedding ceremony, catered by Culinary Crafts. The cocktail hour featured handed hors d’oeuvres, together with ahi tuna tostadas with avocado, roasted corn crisps with mango salsa and bacon-wrapped dates.
The bountiful dinner buffet featured grilled pineapple and mandarin salad with sesame ginger dressing, recent Atlantic salmon with citrus salsa and kalua pork with seasoned rice. Dessert was gelato bars by Pinguino’s, together with wedding ceremony cake. Sliders had been served for a late-night snack.
Nephi and Maddie’s love story entails a little bit of serendipity. After assembly throughout their teenage years at Hawaii’s Polynesian Cultural Heart — the place she was residing on the time and he was visiting for a soccer occasion — the 2 later reconnected in Utah. Nephi had dedicated to play for the College of Utah, and Maddie ended up transferring to the state “by whole probability.”
After getting again in contact, they had been “inseparable,” she tells ipromiseyoumedia.
Then at some point, Maddie discovered “the ring” and was so excited that the pair determined to “simply go for it.” They received married at a courthouse on Dec. 22, 2021, surrounded by shut household.
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Two and a half years later, Nephi proposed to his spouse at Kawela Bay in Oahu on June 29, 2024.
“He [said he] wished to offer me the marriage I’d at all times dreamed about as slightly lady — this time with our children by our facet. It was the whole lot I might have hoped for,” Maddie recollects.
Now that they’ve lastly had their dream celebration with their family members, the couple is trying ahead to many extra adventures and life moments — large and small — collectively.
Extra Credit:
Videographer: Tanner Castro Movies
Content material creator: Reverie
Ceremony florist: Jolley Florals
Hair and make-up: Morgan Fay
Bar: Copa Bar Service
DJ: DJ Teo
Reside strings: Strings of Class
Leases: Indigo Occasion Leases
Ceremony draping: Moonlight Lighting
Invites: Minted
Transportation: Black Diamond Limousine
Candles: Candles Utah
Customized indicators: Confettiology
Customized installations and photograph sales space: Snap Pop Celebration
Marquee letters: Snap Pop Celebration Marquee