VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - To make the most of the Cherry Blossom Festival, the suggestion is to give yourself an hour to walk through the prominade of cherry trees and the neighboring Miyazaki Garden. But, for one couple, all it took was a 20 minute ceremony to make a lifetime memory.
Delanie Nock-Abdou and her new husband Saleh Abdou read their vows under the famed trees at Red Wing Park. It was a wedding that came together quickly for the U.S. Navy couple that just returned from deployment.
“A couple of friends told me about this park and I looked up pictures and I took a walk around and I was like, ‘this is it,'" Delanie told News 3.
And that's how this year's festival kicked off.
Virginia Beach Parks & Recreation says the nearly 200 Yoshino cherry trees were just a couple days away from peak bloom on Saturday. The Cherry Blossom Festival is scheduled to run through April 2.
The trees were gifted to Virginia Beach in 2005 from its sister city in Japan, Miyazaki.
The Parks & Recreation Event Coordinator, Katie Webb, says the festival celebrates that relationship and the arrival of Spring.
"We have a lot of goodwill between the two cities. There’s been visits between the two. They’re in a similar location in Japan that we are here in the United States," she said.
And so, what blooms in Miyazaki, blooms here in Hampton Roads, including cherry trees.
Webb says the blossoms have grown in popularity over the years, with as many as 10,000 walking through annually.
The festival has grown to accommodate, with more days and more events, but it can only go so long, with the blossoms only expected to last around ten days.
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