Our Story

Mary Margaret and Barry met on February 21, 2003, at a Bobby Rush concert in Oxford, Miss. The two were introduced by mutual friends and enjoyed a night of beer and blues music by Bobby Rush, Little Milton and Willie King. Barry often called on Mary Margaret after their first meeting (she and Raney-Mills always laughed when they saw the name "Barry White" appear on caller-ID), but the timing wasn't right and they chalked it up to being friends.  Little did they know, their lives would remain intertwined for the next six years and they would one day be on the road to wedded bliss.

The following year Barry moved to New Orleans, and Mary Margaret moved to New Mexico.

Almost two years after their first introduction, Barry and Mary Margaret had their first date. Both back in Oxford and living nearby, they dined on home-made spaghetti and drank wine with friends. Their spring courtship was full of parties, picnics and concerts. They took several trips that summer: one to Colorado for the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and one to North Carolina where they hiked and canoed throughout the Blue Ridge Mountains. They knew they had found something very special, and the love was starting to feel very real.

Mary Margaret started graduate school and Barry took a job with a local publisher, and for the next two years they enjoyed the life of a local in Mississippi's cultural capitol of Oxford.  It was a bittersweet day in the summer of 2007 when Barry packed his bags for Nashville, and Mary Margaret returned home to her Delta roots. But Mary Margaret was in Nashville by New Years, and they spent 2008 making new friends, dancing the two-step and living life to the fullest in Music City. 

Mississippi called Mary Margaret back home in 2009 when she went to work for the Mississippi Arts Commission. Barry soon returned as well, starting graduate school at Mississippi State University in the fall.  For the past two years, they've been working to carve a path in Mississippi's cultural landscape, and somewhere in the midst they've become stronger and closer as a couple.

Barry popped the question on November 23, 2010, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and they haven't stopped celebrating since.