Unlike you crazy super fans, I became an accidental Fixer Upper fan. Several years ago, I had a few people tell me that I looked and dressed a little like Joanna Gaines on Fixer Upper. I don't have cable so I'd never seen the show. So...I did what any normal human would do and googled it. Image after beautiful image came up and I loved what I saw. About that same time, my oldest son started looking for colleges and found his home at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Yet another thread was woven into the tapestry that has created my fandom.
Personally, the more I get to know about Chip and Joanna Gaines through seven degrees of separation, the more I like them. I hear story after story from real life friends of theirs that tell me how genuine and humble they are. This is a story from a blog reader who reached out to me and it puts a little cherry on the top of what most of you probably already knew.
Chip and Joanna Gaines really are just as sweet and kind as we think that they are. Read on to hear about the very generous wedding surprise they gave these fans that got married at The Silos in Waco.
The Fixer Upper Fans That Got Married {Secretly} at Magnolia Market
I feel like this story may just be better told by the groom, so I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Stacey McNabb.
I grew up in a small farming community in West Texas, but in 2008 I started doing some occasional work for a medical equipment company. After having been out to Southern California to do some work, I decided to move out to the West Coast. It was there that I met Lora. I had been in California just over two years when we started dating, and I had been contemplating moving back to Texas. Her four daughters were all teenagers at the time. I know, lots of people thought I was crazy dating someone with four teenage daughters, but I like a good challenge. The twins were just about to start high school. Lora told me that if our relationship worked out, we could move to Texas if I wanted to once the twins graduated from high school.
In addition to me working as a respiratory therapist, we also owned a small business that kept us very busy. In July of 2014 we had a local minister come to our place of business and perform a small wedding ceremony. With my crazy schedule, I somehow managed to put the marriage license away and never remember to send it in to the county to be recorded, so legally we were still just dating. During the early part of 2013 we started watching a new show called Fixer Upper, and like the rest of America immediately took a liking to Chip and Joanna Gaines.
We flew to Dallas early in 2015 to begin looking for potential towns that might interest us when moving back to Texas. It was during this trip that we drove down to Waco and made our first visit to Magnolia Silos. We did move to the Fort Worth, Texas are in the spring of 2016 and began driving the 88 miles down to the Silos about once a month. We were very excited to learn about the 2nd annual Silobration that was to take place in October 2016. We promptly bought our tickets for the concert event.
It was really neat getting to see Chip and Jo in person that evening. About two weeks after Silobration, it was announced that Magnolia would be doing a Christmas event and concert in early December. Shortly after purchasing our tickets for the Christmas event, I approached Lora and told her that I had the idea for us to "legalize" our marriage on the grounds at the Silos. I knew that the decorations for Christmas would add just the right touch for our occasion. On our next visit to the Silos, I spoke with Jordy, a staff member at Magnolia, and got an email address for someone in customer service to present my idea.
It was really neat getting to see Chip and Jo in person that evening. About two weeks after Silobration, it was announced that Magnolia would be doing a Christmas event and concert in early December. Shortly after purchasing our tickets for the Christmas event, I approached Lora and told her that I had the idea for us to "legalize" our marriage on the grounds at the Silos. I knew that the decorations for Christmas would add just the right touch for our occasion. On our next visit to the Silos, I spoke with Jordy, a staff member at Magnolia, and got an email address for someone in customer service to present my idea.
Whenever the Silos have a ticket event, they close early to clear the grounds and later open only to everyone that has a ticket for the event. On Friday, December 9, the day we chose to have our little ceremony, they were going to close at 4 and reopen at 5 for ticket holders. I emailed my contact and asked if we could do our wedding during that hour that they would be closed to the public. She replied that they would be too busy setting up for the concert, etc., but we were welcome to use the grounds as we saw fit during regular business hours.
During the following weeks, we sat down with our pastor to talk about the logistics of our wedding ceremony. The pastor asked us if we had permission to be doing this because he had done a wedding at the Botanical Garden in Fort Worth where the bride and groom did not have a permit and security ended up showing up. When he told us this, because I am a big practical joker, a big idea flashed in my mind. I wanted to get someone from security at the Silos to approach us and say that we did not have permission to be getting married there. I emailed my Magnolia customer service person to ask about the possibility of making the prank happen. I received a reply back from her on the Wednesday just prior to our planned Friday wedding. She stated that her and the Magnolia CEO, which turns out to be Joanna's father, had been discussing our wedding. They had decided that the weekend of the Christmas concert was not a good time for us to be doing our wedding because of how busy they would be.
The problem was that everything was already set on our end. We had already purchased concert tickets for our pastor, his daughter and several of our friends. I decided to not tell Lora or anyone else about the email and press forward with our plans.
During the following weeks, we sat down with our pastor to talk about the logistics of our wedding ceremony. The pastor asked us if we had permission to be doing this because he had done a wedding at the Botanical Garden in Fort Worth where the bride and groom did not have a permit and security ended up showing up. When he told us this, because I am a big practical joker, a big idea flashed in my mind. I wanted to get someone from security at the Silos to approach us and say that we did not have permission to be getting married there. I emailed my Magnolia customer service person to ask about the possibility of making the prank happen. I received a reply back from her on the Wednesday just prior to our planned Friday wedding. She stated that her and the Magnolia CEO, which turns out to be Joanna's father, had been discussing our wedding. They had decided that the weekend of the Christmas concert was not a good time for us to be doing our wedding because of how busy they would be.
The problem was that everything was already set on our end. We had already purchased concert tickets for our pastor, his daughter and several of our friends. I decided to not tell Lora or anyone else about the email and press forward with our plans.
On Friday, December 9th 2016 we drove down to Waco from Forth Worth, arriving at the Silos just before 3 pm. We headed over to the garden area to find a good spot to get married. I was looking for space that would be out of the way of the many visitors that day, but our pastor took one look at the decorated barn doors right in the middle of the garden and said, lets do it right here. We just took over the area for our 20 minute ceremony. After he pronounced us husband and wife and we started walking away, a Magnolia employee approached us.
It was Jonathan Gulley! He and Jo have known each other since high school. Jonathan and his wife Amy had a house in the first season of Fixer Upper. When Jonathan came up to us, he said that he had seen what we were doing, took a picture of us getting married and texted it to Chip. He then told us that Chip and Jo say congratulations and wanted him to give us a $1,000 gift card to the market. We also got two Strawberry cupcakes from the bakery. You can imagine how surprised we were.
"Our Silos wedding had just been made so much more memorable by the generosity of Chip and Jo."
It was so neat when purchasing items in the market when the employees would be checking us out and they could see the dollar amount of the gift card. They would ask us, who gave you this card? We cracked our big smiles and said, Chip and Jo, then tell them our story. We have since shared our story with hundreds of people across the county because it is confirmation of just what good people Chip and Jo really are.
Is that not the coolest fan story ever?! To top it off, Stacy and his wife Lora continue to make trips to Waco, Texas to visit Magnolia Market, Clint Harp's studio and JDH Iron Designs Shop. The couple ran into Mr. Stevens, Joanna's dad and felt like they needed to apologize for going through with the wedding that day in December even though he had advised against it. Mr. Stevens was gracious and told them not to worry because in the end everything worked out just fine.
And they lived happily ever after! The end.
Can't get enough Fixer Upper?
Why not check out the Flip That Made Chip and Joanna Famous. Would you believe that they were discovered on a blog?
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Season 3 cast members explain what it's really like to be cast on Fixer Upper. You might be surprised that there is some acting involved!
You know you don't get to keep the furniture on Fixer Upper right? So find out what a home looks like after the staging is gone and the family lives in the home.
Still can't get enough Fixer Upper? I have a whole drop down tab with everything you need to know!
Especially, tips on how you can make the most of your visit to Waco, Texas to visit Magnolia Market and have your own magical experience.
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