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WEDDINGS waylaid those plans. The original date was May 2, and the invitations had already been sent when the order to shelter in place came in mid-March. Sarah was actually in Mexico that fateful March 13 weekend for her bachelorette party when her beautiful wedding began to unravel in front of her eyes. The venue called to say that they did not envision being open again for business by early May. Then the start-stop, start-stop whirlwind began. One might call the fairy-tale ceremony that ultimately occurred with 22 guests in the Redwood Forest in the Santa Lucia Preserve "The Cowboy and the Wood Nymph." Finley, wearing bespoke cowboy boots with Sarah's I magine walking among towering sequoias in the Redwood Forest outside Carmel, branches forming an intricate canopy as dramatic as a gothic church. The fragrance of hundreds of plants combine to form a heavenly scent that can never be bottled. The calming silence is only occasionally interrupted by the staccato rat-a-tat of a woodpecker. Now imagine this is the backdrop of your wedding. During the chaotic year we'll call Pandemic 2020, Sarah Elizabeth Requa and Samuel Finley Ewing IV chose this very location for their ceremony. Sarah is from Houston, where much of her family still resides. She attended Southern Methodist University and, like many former grads, fell in love with Dallas and decided to make a home here. She also fell in love with Dallas native Finley Ewing. His charming courtship THE COWBOY AND THE WOOD NYMPH SARAH ELIZABETH REQUA + SAMUEL FINLEY EWING IV AUGUST 15, 2020 By Billy Fong. Photography Liz Banfield. took place over the following years until June 2019, when he surprised her with an entourage of their friends, along with a gorgeous ring, and dropped down on one knee. She immediately and enthusiastically said, "Yes!" And then the wedding planning began. Sarah and Finley strategized their dream wedding with Sara Fay Egan Events. The couple knew from the start that they wanted a destination wedding, and Carmel seemed the perfect choice. His parents had wed there; her parents have a home there and she spent many wonderful family vacations in the seaside community. Add in the fact that Finley is an avid golfer — Pebble Beach is around the corner — and the deal was sealed. Initially envisioned with the de rigueur guest list of 250 plus and the usual assortment of gilded bells and whimsical whistles, COVID, of course, 32