BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Brandon and Chelsey Funderburk were married at the Belle Oaks Wedding Chapel on Friday, September 12.
The bride is the daughter of Lisa Sasser and Rex Collins, who died in 2014. The bride’s stepfather, Jason Sasser, walked her down the aisle. The groom’s parents are Paul Funderburk, Jr. and Marlana Funderburk.
The bride’s brother, Clint Collins, carried triple duty during the wedding, officiating the ceremony, escorting the bride’s mother down the aisle, and serving as “flower dude,” tossing imitation petals as he walked Mrs. Sasser to the front row.
The bride and groom knew of each other in high school, graduating from Bradford in 2014, but did not interact much.
“We had almost every class together,” remembered Chelsey. “We just never talked to one another.”
After graduation, Chelsey married another Bradford student, moved with him to California in 2015, and returned to Florida in 2019 alone, after things did not work out.
One of Brandon’s buddies told him Chelsey was back in town. He contacted her through Instagram and invited her to a group side-by-side outing in the Sampson Lake area.
“She was going through the breakup and everything, and I figured it’d be nice to tell her to come out, come ride with us,” he recalled.
The couple continued to meet in group settings until Brandon invited her on their first date at a Mexican restaurant in Orange Park.
One thing Chelsey remembers about the night is that Salsas in Orange Park did not serve the Cali-Mex food she was used to in San Diego.
The other thing she remembers is her appreciation for Brandon, making her feel special.
Chelsey describes herself as an airhead with a poor track record in relationships. Due to her past experiences with men, she was very cautious with Brandon.
He had some work to do, getting past the self-preservation walls Chelsey had erected to protect herself from the pain she had experienced in the past.
She said he did it with patience, kindness, and paying attention. Little by little, her apprehension gave way to excitement.
On September 12, 2020, Chelsey was with her cousin Karen Clark, soon to be Karen Hall, at a bachelorette outing in Nashville. Brandon reached Chelsey by phone, and the couple had what Chelsey described as an intense talk about their relationship and her past relationship.
At the end of the call, Brandon asked her to be his girlfriend.
“I was like. ‘Yeah? Okay, let’s do this,” she remembered.
That conversation meant so much to the couple that five years later, they set the same date, September 12, as their wedding day.
Brandon works as a technician at UPS’s distribution hub in Jacksonville’s Westside Industrial Park. The facility handles most packages delivered in Jacksonville. The company has a smaller facility on the other side of town, but the Baymeadows location only runs one shift, compared to Funderburk’s hub, which operates 24/7.
Brandon said that because of the massive number of packages running through the facility, the conveyor system breaks frequently. It’s the job of his and around 40 other technicians to keep the conveyor belts running.
Chelsey works at Starke’s Pipeline Contractors, starting as a receptionist. Now, she is an estimator, putting together bids for Ron and Jo Ann Denmark’s underground utilities company.
Her biggest project so far is Diamond Springs, a planned 2,700-lot development off Jacksonville’s Normandy Boulevard, which will feature a three-acre man-made lagoon.
She said it’s rewarding to see her work win a contract and then result in a neighborhood that she can drive by.
Another turning point in Brandon’s and Chelsey’s relationship occurred after the couple watched a movie together and Brandon dozed off on the couch.
Chelsey remembers that while he was sleeping, he uttered “I love you,” between breaths.
When he later woke up, she asked him if he remembered what he had said.
“I know what I said,” he responded.
“Right then,” she recalled. “I knew he was the one.”
Bradnon popped the question on New Year’s Eve, 2023, at a marina in Orange Beach, Alabama.
She knew it was coming, but didn’t know when. The couple had shopped for her ring over the past several months.
“Fireworks were going off everywhere,” she recalled. I was very surprised.”
Her response?
“No hesitation. I knew it was the right thing to do,” she said. “I felt at home and at peace with that decision, right off the bat.”
