Q: How would you describe your wedding?

Paula: It was beautiful, absolutely perfect. We had a small intimate ceremony and then 600 or more at the reception – we really don’t know how many -- and there weren’t any boo boos, to my knowledge at least! If anything went wrong, they didn’t let me know. The key is to surround yourself with the best people and there shouldn’t be any glitches.

Q: What were the most important aspects in choosing the foods you served at your wedding?

Paula: I knew that I had to be true to myself and to my traditions – so no Italian, Greek, and so on. I wanted the food to be delicious, traditional, and Southern. We had a station for shrimp and grits, which we served hot in martini glasses, making them easy for people to hold and we also had a steamship round. We also served pimento cheese sandwiches, which are very traditional tomato sandwiches – you don’t have a party in the south without these sandwiches! We’re also okra lovers in the south -- most of us – so we had pickled okra sandwiches as well. We passed hors d’oeuvres such as crab stuffed shrimp and handle sandwiches. Traditionally, these are white bread around a chicken leg, but we used drumettes of wing and wrapped it up with leeks. We also had fruit trays with fresh cream, a hot seafood dip that we serve in the restaurant, and a raw oyster station where someone was shucking raw oysters for the guests.

Q: Did you serve anything that wasn’t Southern?

Paula: Won tons were the only thing we did that weren’t really Southern, but by the time we finished with them they were! We stuffed them with cooked collard greens and cream cheese. It was different and delicious!

Q: What about the wedding cake?

Paula: We had a pound cake with sour cream, almond, and orange extract. It was out of this world! And the groom’s cake was even better. My husband loves banana nut cake – it’s his favorite – so the woman who made our cake just put it together and it was the best I’ve ever eaten. Both cakes were also stuffed with fresh flowers.

Q: How did your husband pop the question?

Paula: It was so wonderful. We were home on Christmas morning and we hadn’t finished opening our gifts before a bunch of our relatives started piling in. Of course I didn’t know what was going on. My cousin sat me in a chair and had me open a specific gift, and I didn’t understand why I had to do it right then. The box was shaped like a house and the card said "Paula", so I opened it up and there was another box in there. I pulled that out and it said "I", and there was another box inside that one and it said "love", so I opened that box, and it said "you". That’s when my niece hollered out "Are you reading the message?" I opened the next box and it said "Will" and that’s when I started shaking. Using all of the boxes, he had written, "I love you. Will you be my wife?" and the last one contained my engagement ring.

It was so typical of him because he’s a little shy. There he was just propped up against the door and he didn’t have to say a word. His boxes did the talking! It was so romantic and so sweet and he gave me the most beautiful diamond ring I’ve ever seen. I don’t remember anything after that, it was just chaotic. I did some cooking, but I don’t remember what. I was in a stupor, but surrounded by everyone I love so much.

Q: How did you meet your husband?

Paula: It was three years ago this coming August. My life was coming together professionally, but my personal life was just horrible. I just lived and breathed my work. I had been divorced for awhile, and since a lot of men my age wanted young women, I knew my chance of finding a mate was slim to none.

My social life was on my dining room floor; I didn’t go to clubs and I thought my only chance was to meet a neighbor. So, I added another line to my prayer every night and said "Please God give me a neighbor." Around that time, I decided to move downtown and live on the water. I bought the first thing I found, and was on hiatus from the restaurant and writing my third cookbook.

One day, I was writing and my dogs came over to tell me they had to go the bathroom. I took them outside to do the routine we always did, but this time we went outside and they ran in the complete opposite direction. I shimmied around a wall to finally catch them and they ran straight up to this man who was in his yard propped up on a fence talking on a cell phone. I had no idea who he was.

He said when you’re done with your book maybe we can get a drink, but I thought fat chance! It was very intimidating to me. He had gray hair and a beard and he had a very dry sense of humor. I went home and didn’t think much of it, but then the dogs did the same thing two weeks later. And he was in the same spot, talking on his phone. I had just bought a boat, and didn’t know how to drive it, so I asked him if he knew anything about boats and he said a little; I soon found out he had spent his whole life on the water. He’s actually a docking pilot. We made a date for the next day to go out on the boat and we’ve been together ever since.

I wish I could clone him and give all of my girlfriends a Michael. But the best I can do is loan them my dogs since you never know what they’ll find!