Corolla Wedding Profile

When Aly Crandall and Rob Lehman decided to tie the knot, they had a few priorities: getting their family and friends together, throwing a patriotic red, white and blue celebration, and relaxing in the Currituck Outer Banks - a Crandall family favorite vacation destination.

Both Rob and Aly attended Langley High School in McLean, Virginia, but they didn’t really know each other at the time. They actually met later when a mutual friend described Rob, a Marine who was serving in Iraq, to Aly, an elementary school teacher. Aly gave her students an assignment to write to Rob during his deployment. The correspondence continued and the two went on their first date when Rob returned to Virginia. Following a second deployment, Rob proposed to Aly in front of her fifth-grade class.

They decided on a beach wedding on the North Carolina Outer Banks during June 2008. Initially, Rob and Aly were concerned about planning a destination wedding 300 miles from their home-base of McLean and Great Falls, Virginia. Local vendors quickly put them at ease, however. Exceptional service kept all events going as planned, including the rehearsal dinner held at the Currituck Club and the reception at the Sanderling Resort in Duck.

Rob and Aly’s oceanfront wedding ceremony on the sand was accented with fresh flowers from Sugar Snap events. Every moment was captured by photographer Julie Dreelin of Beach Productions. And this beach wedding just wouldn’t have been complete without a sandcastle cake by Just Desserts.

“I loved that the small-town feeling was in everything,” said Aly. “Everyone worked together and gave us great personalized service that made it easy.”

It was a casually elegant wedding that also gave family and friends a chance to relax and get to know each other. A block of ten homes in Corolla Light and additional hotel rooms kept everyone together.

“Most everyone came and spent four to seven days. Cousins spent hours playing volleyball and body-surfing the waves. We had golfers, runners, anglers and tennis players. People toured the wildlife museum and went to see the wild horses. Others just spent hours at the beach, reading and talking,” said Derrick Crandall, father of the bride.

Guests commented on the elegance of the wedding, the beauty of the beach and the resort setting. They came from all over the nation and went away agreeing it was one of the most enjoyable events they’d ever attended.

Aly and Rob also discovered an unexpected benefit to hosting a wedding in the small-town setting of Corolla – it’s easy to get things done. A wedding guest who was a Marine major left his cell phone on a shuttle between the reception and the resort. He was scheduled at the Pentagon the next day and really needed his phone. To solve the problem, the head of security at Corolla Light placed a call to the Currituck County sheriff’s deputy on patrol. The officer pulled the bus over and detained the driver until the wedding party could catch up.

“Try doing something like that in Northern Virginia!” commented Derrick Crandall.

The anecdote illustrates that the most important thing a bride needs is a team of people committed to making her day special. The Currituck location provided everything Rob and Aly wanted, from a pristine beach backdrop to dedicated wedding planners. Given all this, the fact that Currituck’s unique location made everyone feel like a VIP on a seaside vacation was just icing on the cake.

Photos on this page are courtesy of Jule Dreelin of Beach Productions