Time and Time Again
By Sara L. Medina
Share
More Photos 
It was either fate or circumstance that kept bringing Jacqui Allen and Shane Seibert together time and time again.
The pair first met while in high school. Jacqui, a sophomore at Clovis High School, met Shane, a senior at Madera High, through mutual friends. However, neither paid too much attention to the other.
"He had a girlfriend at the time," Jacqui explains.
They crossed paths a couple of years later, once again through a mutual friend. This time around, both were attending college. Shane's roommate, Tyler Clutts, was responsible for the meeting.
"We knew so many of the same people," Jacqui says. "We never got together because of other circumstances, but there was always an attraction. We always tried to fight the odds, but we finally gave in and decided to date."
Even then, it wouldn't be the fairy-tale ending that you would expect. Not yet, anyway.
The first time around, Jacqui and Shane managed a six-month relationship, but realized that life had other plans for them - separately.
At the time, Shane was a student athlete at California State University, Fresno, and Jacqui was attending Fresno City College for one year. As the semester came to an end, Jacqui decided to transfer to California State University, Long Beach.
The distance quickly took its toll on the young couple. "I moved down there and the relationship lasted about three months after the move," Jacqui says.
"We decided that we were in different places, in location and also as a couple," Shane adds.
The pair didn't talk after the breakup, but fast forward 1 1/2 years later, and the communication once again fell into place.
"We started e-mailing each other back and forth for about a month," Jacqui says.
They became reacquainted through the e-mails and a month after re-establishing a connection, Shane asked Jacqui to attend one of his wrestling matches.
"I didn't wrestle because I had broken ribs, but I still invited her to the match and dinner afterward," Shane says.
Jacqui accepted the invitation, and that's when the grown-up version of their love affair began.
After the wrestling match, Jacqui and Shane ate dinner and caught up on old times and new circumstances.
"We knew it was serious the first night we got back together," Shane says. "There was something different for sure."
This time Jacqui and Shane decided that if they were going to get back together, then it would have to be done right.
"We both knew that we'd need a strong sense of commitment," Shane says.
"It wasn't that we were cheating or anything like that, but before it was like we would say we were going out or doing something, and do it without thinking about the other person. We knew we needed a more mature commitment."
A more mature commitment meant that Jacqui would decide to move back to Fresno to complete her psychology degree at Fresno State. But one more twist would mean another move for the couple.
Within a week of moving back to Fresno, Jacqui and Shane were outside playing basketball together. The ball accidentally hit Jacqui in the face, which sent her to the hospital for emergency surgery for a broken nose and shattered septum.
To make matters worse, Shane found out that Fresno State had cut its wrestling program. He decided to transfer to the University of Oklahoma to wrestle his senior year.
"I had just had surgery, and he came and told me about it," Jacqui says laughing at the now-amusing series of events. "This all happened in one week."
But the decision was clear. "I decided to move, too," Jacqui says.
The couple both completed their degrees in Oklahoma. Jacqui completed her degree online through Long Beach State and Shane completed his liberal studies degree at the University of Oklahoma.
Fast forward one year and three months later, and the couple was ready to make their relationship permanent.
Spring break 2007 gave Jacqui and Shane a chance to make the 27-hour drive from Oklahoma to Fresno to visit family and friends. It also gave Shane the perfect chance to propose.
"We decided to stop at the Montage Resort in Laguna Beach," Jacqui says. "After we moved to Oklahoma, I didn't really get a chance to pamper myself, so I scheduled a pedicure and manicure."
After the pedicure, Shane asked Jacqui if she wanted to take a walk on the beach. She agreed and then it happened.
"We walked into a cove and he told me to close my eyes," Jacqui says. "I had no idea what was happening. We had been making video messages for our family back home and he had the camera with him, so I thought he was going to start filming.
"I closed my eyes and he turned me around. When I opened them, I saw 'Will you marry me?' written in the sand. He was behind me and I turned around to find him down on one knee. I almost fainted."
The proposal was a success. Jacqui had no idea that it was coming. The couple had been talking marriage for a while, but Shane wanted the proposal to be a surprise, so to throw her off track he told her to pick out a ring that she wanted.
"I was actually mad at him," she says. "I wanted him to pick the ring and because he told me to pick my own, I thought that he was getting cold feet."
Shane had actually been in contact with a ring designer in Los Angeles for a few months prior to the proposal. He custom-designed the ring - an antique-finished, contemporary cut ring with a round diamond.
"He designed it all by himself; it was just what I wanted," she says.
The wedding planning began immediately after the engagement. Jacqui and Shane agreed that they would have a short engagement.
"We were both ready to get married as soon as we got engaged," Shane says.
And from that moment, Jacqui decided that the wedding planning (and her wedding day) would not be stressful. As with any couple, Jacqui and Shane had their work cut out for them, but they also had one huge advantage - Shane was raised in a "wedding family."
"His family owns Wolf Lakes," Jacqui says. "And he was very involved in the whole process. He knows more about weddings than almost everybody else who was involved in the wedding."
Jacqui knew that she wanted an elegant, classic wedding. "I didn't want anything that was too trendy, something more like a black-tie affair," she says.
Keeping with the formal theme, Jacqui decided to choose black and white with touches of red for her wedding colors.
The entire wedding party wore black and white attire. The bridesmaids picked their own black dresses, while the groomsmen wore black-on-black tuxedos without a tie.
Shane stood out from the groomsmen in a black tuxedo with a white shirt and vest.
Jacqui wore a Melissa Sweet silk, strapless wedding dress with a sweetheart neckline. The top was corset-fitted, with buttons down the back and the dress flared at the bottom to complete an elegant look.
"I knew that I wanted it from the first time that I saw it," Jacqui says. "It was simple, but beautiful. I forced myself to try on a few other dresses, but I wouldn't even let the store associates zip up the others."
Jacqui's wedding dress was perfect, Shane says. "I melted when I saw her," he adds.
The bride's red rose bouquet and centerpieces completed Jacqui's black-white-red color scheme.
Shane's mother, Janet Seibert, who owns a wedding planning business, coordinated their wedding.
"All of the decorations were done by Janet," Jacqui says. "She was very hands-on. I'd just give her an idea and she'd run with it. I just felt like all I had to do was show up."
Additionally, Shane's cousin Amy DeGraw, who owns Brown Bunny Floral Co., created the bouquets, centerpieces and the floral arrangement around the cake, and cousin Jordan Wolf catered the wedding.
More than 300 people attended the wedding and reception at Wolf Lakes.
"The day was amazing, unbelievable," Shane says. "It was about 85 degrees outside, and we were married in a shaded area with big, beautiful trees."
The couple was married about two feet from the lake, which coincidentally, was the spot of their first date.
"I didn't have one butterfly on the day of the wedding," Jacqui says. "I was glad when the day came."
For the most part, the wedding ran smoothly. One glitch threatened to slightly throw the wedding off track.
"About two hours before the wedding, our videographer called and said that he couldn't make it," Shane says.
So the groom turned to 14 Karat Entertainment, the entertainment company who also provided the DJ for the reception. "They were awesome. They sent a videographer within an hour," he says.
Despite the last-minute glitch, Jacqui remembered to keep the most important thing in perspective. "At the end of the day, I knew I was marrying my best friend," she says.
After the wedding, guests were treated to fine dining with foods like lobster ravioli, beef tornadoes and vegetarian Alfredo pasta on the menu.
After dinner, the Seiberts shared their first dance to "It's Your Love," by country couple Faith Hill and Tim McGraw. Guests then danced the night away to Top 40-style music.
"Our goal was to create a genuine and relaxed wedding," Jacqui says. "We wanted everybody to have fun."
After pulling off a perfect wedding, the Seiberts say that they most look forward to being able to spend time and share life together. For the three months prior to the wedding day, the couple spent little time together as they were busy with moving back from Oklahoma, wedding planning and preparing for another move, this time to San Jose, where Shane will attend the Palmer College of Chiropractic.
"I look forward most to being able to come home and just hang out together," Jacqui says.
With Shane in school for the next three years, San Jose is "home." After Shane completes chiropractic school, the Seiberts will decide where they will settle in the future.
"If we love it in San Jose, we'll stay, but if not, we are also looking at Clovis or the San Clemente area," Jacqui says.
"Or Costa Rica," Shane adds laughing.
The Costa Rica idea spurs from Shane's brother (and best friend), Kyle, who lives there with his family.
Jacqui says that Kyle gave the newlyweds some of the best advice to keep in mind for the upcoming years.
"He told us that although being married comes with responsibility, it's the most awesome experience," Jacqui says. "He said with that responsibility comes an enjoyment that you couldn't even think of before."
And the Seiberts look forward to that.