Boarding from the Alida Hotel, Homewood Suites on River Street, and the Fairfield Inn on MLK Blvd.
Boarding at 4pm, departing at 4:15pm to go to The Mackey House.
Trolley transportation will be provided at the end of the night as well.

November 4th, 2023

5 o'clock in the evening
The Mackey House | Savannah, Georgia
Black tie attire mandatory - if you have questions regarding this, please email Lian at liannajarian@gmail.com

Following the ceremony on the terrace
Appetizers & open bar

Celebrate with us all night long
Plated dinner, music & dancing

November 3rd, 2023

8pm - 11pm
The Alida Hotel | Franklin Pool Deck
All guests invited! Cocktail attire.

11pm - 3am
Whitaker's Bar | Downtown Savannah
Cash Bar

There will be trolleys taking guests to and from the venue on our wedding day.
Please be sure to submit your accommodations in the RSVP form!

We wish we could host plus ones for all guests at our wedding.
Unfortunately, we have to limit the plus one count to those who are specified on individual invitations.
Please feel free to reach out to us with any and all questions!

Black tie attire mandatory.
If you have questions regarding this, please email Lian at liannajarian@gmail.com

Outdoor ceremony and reception.

For my 25th birthday, Matthew and I planned to go to my favorite place in the world, Savannah. All of my favorite activities were planned - dinner at The Grey, a visit to St. Simons Island, getting goodies from The Paris Market, the list goes on. Matthew also mentioned that we were going on a walking tour on Saturday, which was something I'd never done before!

While we were at dinner on Friday night, I had a funny feeling. I asked Matthew from across the table, "Wait, are you proposing this weekend?" He literally scoffed at me and decidedly said, "No." I dropped it and moved on, thinking we would probably get engaged during our anniversary in the near year anyway.

Once Saturday came around, things started to get a little fishy. Our walking tour through Forsyth Park was scheduled for 4pm and dinner was at 8pm. While we were getting ready for the tour, Matthew said to me, "Wear your most favorite outfit you brought, and definitely do not wear your Nike sneakers. We'll be going straight to dinner from the tour." I thought that was a bit weird, as I clearly wasn't going to wear my heels on a walking tour. Then he said, "Well it's more like a photo tour...a photo tour where they take photos of us." In that moment, I knew my suspicion the night before was correct. The only problem was, I hadn't washed my hair in 3 days, and we were leaving in 15 minutes, so I did the best I could (please don't judge my hair in the photos. It will be clean for the wedding, I promise).

We arrived in Forsyth park and Matthew told me that the meeting point for the tour was outside of the Fragrance Garden. I could tell he was getting nervous, so I played along while trying to hide my excitement. We got to the garden, Matt got down on one knee, and it was the best moment of my life. I'll spare you the sappy details.

After we were engaged, our amazing photographer, Diane, snapped some photos of us around Savannah for about an hour. Once we were done, I asked Matt if we could Facetime all of our friends and family to tell them. He wanted to "stay in our bubble" a little longer, so we got some champagne at Collins in the Park instead. We agreed that we would go back to the rooftop of our hotel, get some drinks, and call everyone there.

We arrived back at The Drayton rooftop, but the door to the restaurant was closed. The Manager came from around the corner, opened the door, and 40 of Matthew's and my closest friends and family were there to greet us. They cheered, I cried, and we partied all night long. Somehow Matthew organized getting everyone to come down to Savannah (months in the making) without anyone spoiling the surprise. It truly was the best night of my life.

We ended the weekend on a high and celebrating my 25th on Monday. My list of favorite activities in Savannah are entirely different from when we arrived, and I cannot wait to make even more amazing memories with all of you!

For a few months, I was thinking of the best way to ask Lian to marry me. More so, where? Somewhere in NYC? Somewhere romantically cliche like Paris? Our hometown? Nothing felt quite right until I thought about Savannah, Georgia with all of our loved ones. I love surprising people - seeing someone so shocked and happy and smiling from check to cheek. But most importantly, I know Lian loves surprises and LOVES her family and friends. Being able to celebrate such a blissful moment in our lives with some of our most cherished people was what I thought to be the perfect way.

Fast forward to the day. I don’t need to bore you with all of the planning that went into place over a six month span - from getting her family's blessing, talking to my family, texting our friends, finding a photographer who wasn’t already shooting at a wedding, and booking a venue. Let’s just say I was quite relieved once this was all said and done.

Honestly the time before the proposal was a giant blur. My only concern was not running into any of our 40+ loved ones in Savannah before the proposal. I remember wanting to be outside of Savannah until that moment, so the day prior we were in St. Simons Island and went to They Grey for dinner, where Lian looked me dead in the eyes and asked if I was proposing, I LOL’d and said no, and that was that. The morning of, we went to Tybee Island. When we got back, we had a couple hours to spare before we had to go on the "walking tour." Looking back, I would have framed it a little differently, but hey ho. Nerves were starting to pick up so naturally, had to run them off. As Lian was getting ready for the "walking tour", she put on Nike sneakers and I said "oh God, do not wear those." Her response was “but it’s a walking tour...”, which then I added that there were some pictures being taken in this said "walking tour". Dumb me.

Well, it was about to be showtime. Show #1. The first hurdle: stuffing a ring in a box in my tight pockets. The next hurdle was finding the exact location that my photographer was going to be at in Forsyth Park. Once we got out of the Uber, my heart started racing and each step felt like eternity until I saw our photographer! That was my cue - SHOWTIME. I got down on one knee (like Jalen Hurts running out the clock during a SB LVII victory…) and popped the question that she was waiting for. Lian mentioned that she really thought our family and friends would have been behind the bushes to surprise her, little did she know….

Afterwards, Diane was taking pictures of us in Savannah which you are looking at (aren’t they just lovely?). Following that, Lian wanted to FaceTime our family and friends. I said "no, let’s just enjoy the moment to ourselves and can call after dinner."

Show #2 was hiding my excitement to see all of our family and friends at the rooftop of The Drayton. When we got back to the hotel, we changed and then headed up to the rooftop. When Lian went to open the door, it was locked, then the manager opened it and SURPRISE! What a beautiful moment and time with all of our loved ones celebrating such a special milestone.

A Savannah classic that's amazing for any meal. Come extra hungry.
Lian likes the shakshouka and Matthew likes the swine time beni.

Lian feels very passionately about Green Truck - it's her favorite burger in the world.
If you get a chance, try the el jefe burger or the papa's salad. Thank us later.

Their favorite restaurant in Savannah, and also one of the best ones in the US.
Everything is good (not kidding).

The Vault is somewhere Lian and Matthew go every time they're in Savannah.
It has delicious Asian food, great drinks, and a really cool atmosphere.

Downtown Savannah's main street, Broughton is home to a lot of local gems. Our favorites are The Paris Market, Savannah Bee Company, and Leopold's Ice Cream.

The "Central Park" of Savannah, Forsyth is one of our favorite places in town.

If you're looking to see some unique exhibitions and get a taste of the SCAD campus,
definitely check this museum out.

Savannah is known to hold tons of history, and a great way to see it is by exploring the entire city with a guided tour. Noble Jones is a popular walking tour company, but there are many others as well.

A wonderful stay located in the heart of downtown Savannah.
Side note: it smells great too.

A quiet Hilton hotel located right on the Savannah River.

If you want to stay in a luxurious Savannah classic, this one's for you.
Located right on the park, The Mansion is a lovely hotel with lots of history!

If hotels aren't your style, Savannah has a ton of beautiful Airbnb options in the city that make you feel like a local.
If you're looking into one, we recommend anything that's between Forsyth Park and River Street.
That way, everything is in walking distance and you get all the beautiful Savannah views!