College sweethearts turned superstar athletes Olympic Gold Medalist sprinter Sanya Richards and NY Giants cornerback Aaron Ross jumped the broom in a spectacular affair in Austin Texas on February 26, 2010.
Sanya and Aaron flew their “glam squad”—a hair stylist, makeup artist and stylist—down from New York to help them get gussied up for their big day.
The church in Austin that Richards and Ross belong too was too small to accommodate all of their guests. They said “I Do” in the glorious Hyde Park Baptist Church.
Sanya chose her bridesmaids’ gowns to match the beautiful amber toned stone that rests in the center of her wedding gown.
The groom stood out from his groomsmen in an ivory tuxedo that matched his bride’s gown.
Sanya was fixed on her groom as she walked down the aisle toward him. “He looked so good. I remember looking at him the whole time,” she says. “I couldn’t take my eyes off of him.”
“When my dad saw me for the first time, we both kind of teared up,” Richards says of the intimate moments with her father before he gave her away. “He told me how proud of me he was.”
Aaron says seeing his bride in her wedding gown, “was the most beautiful moment I’ve witnessed thus far.”
In the middle of their first dance to Kelly Clarkson’s “A Moment Like This,” Sanya switched things up with a special Beyonce medley, including the hit “Upgrade You” to Aaron’s surprise.
“Everyone kept saying, ‘oh my God, you’re the coolest bride I’ve ever seen,’” Sanya said of being calm on her wedding day. “Aaron and I have been together for so long and I felt like it was a culmination of us doing the right thing.”
Richards and Ross’ reception, held at The Four Seasons, Austin, was organized by celebrity wedding planner Donnie Brown. He chose the floral arrangements for the grand event. “It definitely helps to have a central person,” Sanya says, of having Donnie by her side.
Entertainment at the Richards-Ross wedding was top notch. Fonzworth Bentley was the emcee for the night and Ryan Leslie serenaded the couple.
The newlyweds flew their sport flags high at the wedding reception, with place settings that featured a football or running shoe.
The newlyweds are looking forward to starting a family in a few years. “I don’t want to have my kids too old,” Sanya says. “It’s fun to have parents that are young.”
Since their wedding was on Sanya’s 25th birthday, she and Aaron and their friends partied it up in Austin until the wee hours of the morning. “We partied until three or four o’clock in the morning. By the time we got back to our room, we were busted,” she laughs.
A few days after the wedding, the newlyweds pranced off to a fabulous honeymoon adventure in the Arab Emirates—first stop Dubai, then Abu Dabi. Happy trails!
