celebrations

For the last six years, the Wooley family has been hosting weddings in Valdosta and beyond! Their five daughters have all been married within that time, with three of the weddings within the same 18 months. The youngest of the five girls, Amy Gail Wooley (now Amy Gail Kenerly) was the last of her sisters to get married. Her husband, John Lex Kenerly IV, is from Jesup, and he is the oldest brother of four siblings and the last wedding for the Kenerly family as well. By the time their wedding day came, both families felt like professional wedding planners! Truly, this special wedding felt like the last big celebration they needed to make them each complete.

Story by MEGAN PIPER WHITE | Photography by DARBY BOBO PHOTOGRAPHY

For Amy Gail, growing up with five girls in the house meant there were times when it was absolutely crazy — there was lots of sneaking clothes from each other's closets, and "hurry ups" yelled trying to get them all out of the door — but those days held some of their best memories. “As the baby, I have had such incredible women to look up to my entire life. My sisters and, of course, our parents were and continue to be the best support system and such an example of the Lord's unconditional love. By God's grace, and the standards our mom and dad set, we all married men who fit well into our family and love us deeply. Now that we are all older, it is like having four built-in best friends, always. I think some of our best memories are still to come, and as my dad said to all of the girls earlier this year, ‘We've had enough memories to last ten lifetimes,’ and for that we are grateful.”

Amy Gail and John Lex have an interesting story of how they met. They were actually set up on a blind date by the pastor’s wife at their church in Athens, home of the University of Georgia, where Amy Gail went to college and John Lex went to law school. Amy Gail describes it, “She was mentoring me at the time and had mentored John Lex’s sisters before and thought we would be a good match. We still call Mrs. Lisa our matchmaker!” John Lex then reached out to Amy Gail and planned a date night. They started the date with dinner, then ordered cheesecake and coffee to go and sat on UGA’s campus and just talked for hours. “I think one of my favorite things about that date was him wanting coffee at night too. If you know me, I am up for coffee at any hour, and I would soon learn he was as well. For John Lex, it was love at first sight. A short while