Chad and Candice

At Dianna Rae Jewelry, we enjoy sharing the love stories of our customers because your story is our story. Congratulations to Chad and Candice, and thank you for sharing your love story with us.

How They Met

Our love story begin when Chad’s Best Friends (a married couple) name Casey and Michelle Roger, met me and asked me if I would like to be introduced to their long time close friend Chad Brown. At the time I figured what do I have to lose, so I said sure thing. Within a week Chad reached out to me through Facebook, then we shared each others phone numbers and starting texting. The texting turned into phone calls each night which lasted for hours. He was in West Texas at the time working a 14 day hitch, so for 14 days we talked and go to know each other, never really knowing what each other looked liked. We only knew we were both very intrigued by the person on the other end of the line and we liked each others voices. It felt too good to be true, no way this person that I’ve talked to for 2 weeks now could be as good as they sounded. We laughed, told stories, made plans, made bucket lists (in case this worked out), and genuinely became very close friends during those 14 days. We kept trying to figure out how we had never met before, being that we had a lot of mutual friends and went to all the same places.
Once he got back in to Lafayette on a Tuesday (10/23/2018), we had a date planned for that Tuesday night. It was a cold rainy night, so we decided to keep it casual and order food at his place and get to know each other in person finally. When he opened his door I know I had to pick my jaw up. He was such a good looking guy and I couldn’t believe that it was finally happening, meeting each other in person. He was only home until Monday night, and we had plans each day until he had to leave to go back to West Texas. We were inseparable and that’s pretty much the rest of the story. During his 14 days at work, we would talk each night until bed time and for 14 days when he was home, we spent time together, went to Festivals, Listen to Live Music, Eat out with friends, or even stay home spending quiet time with each other building our relationship. Our love for Family, God, and each other was ever so present in the beginning and has stayed strong even through today. It wasn’t long after we met that we knew, we had met our person, everything finally made sense.

The Proposal

The proposal date was November 30, 2019 at home in the afternoon, just us, very private with lots of tears of joy from both of us. We talked about marriage that summer of 2019. We talked about where, how big, what band would play, and who would stand by our side on the alter. We didn’t ever discuss dates or when anything would happen, mostly just dreaming about the day. I did let him know that I had a family heirloom passed down to me from my grandmother and that when the day came, I’d like to make sure that her diamond was incorporated in my ring. He asked to see it and said we should go to a store he heard about, Dianna Rae, and maybe she could help us. One Saturday afternoon in October 2019, we walked into the store and Dianna was there to greet us. We showed her what we had, and she helped us with ideas on what we could do with it. Little did I know, Chad and her were talking at lease once a week or so about the design, and dates to have it ready. I asked Chad about the ring a few times and he would say her team is still working on it and would let us know once they had something ready for us to preview. A few times when I ask, he actually had the ring already.

The Saturday, November 30 2019 we had spent the day with friends listening to our Favorite Band, the band we knew that would play at our wedding, The Foret Tradition. We got back home that afternoon and from what I know now, he jumped the gun and proposed that night instead of with friends the next day and a surprise dinner planned. He got down on one knee in our bedroom, crying and popped the big question. He said I got too excited, we just had such a good and fun day today, I couldn’t help myself, I just had to propose to you tonight, it felt so right. We celebrated that night by going to dinner at Uncle T’s Oyster Bar in Scott, which was the place of our first date. We did still have the surprise dinner with Friends at Ruth’s Chris the next night as well.

Dianna Rae also made another piece that was incorporated in our wedding. I gave her more family heirloom jewelry that meant very much to me. Her and her team were able to create a necklace for me to wear on my wedding day as my something Old, New, Borrowed and Blue. The pieces that I gave her were anniversary gifts and birthday gifts from my grandparents and parents, all passed down to me. The blue is my mother birthstone. The vintage look of the necklace matched the same vintage style of my ring. It is such a special piece a jewelry that she created for me and its made with so much love from family. Again I was duped by Chad. I kept telling him, the store is not calling me back, I really want to know how the process is going with the necklace. The necklace was under our Christmas tree the whole time, and on Christmas Eve he had me open the gift and I cried so hard. I had never seen anything so beautiful and I was such a lucky girl that he surprised me in this way.

The planning went well, we did hit a few bumps due to Covid. We did not have to change our date at all. We did have to cut the list from 150 guest to 50, and then wait to hear if we could add more each time the Governor spoke. Lots of nerves and added stress, not knowing what the guidelines would be come August 8, 2020. When they day came, were were able to have 150 people attend, at Vermilionville in the Chapel and the reception was also in their event center. We were not allowed a band, by Ryan Foret did come sing our wedding song, “To Love Somebody”, which this was also another surprise Chad had up his sleeve.

The Ring

My ring is full of love and history, my center stone was passed down from my grandmother. This stone was in an earring she had that my grandfather had given to her. We did design this ring in the store. My goal was antique, vintage, and a design no one had. The day he proposed was most definitely a surprise and the ring was even more beautiful than what we had drawn up with Dianna in the store. My band matches as well.

Chads ring is also from Dianna Rae Jewelry.