Wedding Wednesday: Popping the Bridal Party Question

Happy Wednesday y'all! Today I'm back with another Wedding Wednesday post. This is the third post in the series. Last time I shared a wedding update with you (check it out here), I talked about the next two items on our to do list: finding a DJ and figuring out how to ask our bridal party to be part of our big day.  Well, we've crossed one of these items off the list, and the other one we have an appointment that will potentially end in us crossing it off the list. 

One of the exciting parts of planning our wedding has been deciding who we want to play a significant role in our big day.  We are lucky to have lots of great friends and family members, so it took us a little bit to narrow down who we wanted to be in our wedding party.  The deciding factors became who has been a part of our relationship, how long we've known them, and if we felt like they were people who would be our lifelong friends. So many people (my parents included) look back at their wedding day and have people that were in their wedding party that they no longer speak to.  I mean you can never predict the future, but what you can do is evaluate how strong your friendship is and the trends you've noticed in people. 

Once we selected who we wanted to ask, it was time for the fun part-deciding how and when to ask them. The when was the most difficult part. Ideally, we would have loved to get everyone together and ask them all at once. Our friends and family leave all across the country, so this option was quickly eliminated. We then hoped to each ask our respective sides at one time, but everyone's schedules and geographic locations prohibited this from occurring. What we ended up doing was trying to ask everyone within the same time frame. I asked all of my bridesmaids, maid of honor, and bridesman within a week of each other.  I was able to ask everyone in person, except one friend. I thought that was pretty good considering I live in Pennsylvania and my people live as far away as the West coast now. 

The how was the creative part. I started brainstorming awhile ago thanks to bridal magazines and Pinterest.  I knew I wanted to keep it simple. A growing trend that I don't love is for brides to ask their bridal party with these elaborate gifts. I wanted to keep the cost low while providing a tasteful gift that would reflect what our day will be like. I considered crafting, but after doing some budgeting I realized it would be a bit costly + timely.  Thanks to Etsy and a little creativity I curated the perfect proposal gifts for my girls and guy.  For the ladies I purchased Etsy boxes that included a personal box, a stemless champagne glass, and a paper straw. I was excited to find out that the glasses were real and not plastic. For the price, I definitely thought they were going to be plastic. I then added a set of hair ties that included our wedding colors (blush + burgundy + navy) and a mini bottle of bubbly to celebrate with. The crafting came into play with the homemade cards. I use craft paper and scrap book paper to print on.

I also asked my best friend from growing up, Kyle, to be my bridesman/man of honor. We have been close since we were three, so I could not imagine getting married without him by my side.  He and Todd are super close, but ultimately they are close because of me. This is why we chose to go the less traditional route. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of his gift and card. I got him a customized pint glass and the most adorable card.

Little details:
Boxes
Glasses
Hair ties
Washi tape
Pint glass
Bridesman card

Planning Updates and Goals:

So where am I in the planning process? I honestly haven't made much progress since the last update, but next month's calendar is filled with appointments. In August we are hopefully going to have our seating arrangement and DJ finalized. I did make a dress appointment at the boutique my mom and I always joked about me getting my wedding dress fun- it was kind of surreal when I finally called to book the appointment.

 I'm in the middle of searching for our videographer (any recommendations are welcome). We originally were not going to get one, but after talking to friends and attending weddings we've changed our minds and decided to splurge on it. After all, when it is all said and done the only thing you have left are your memories, pictures, and the video. 

Wedding Wednesday posts:

The First Six Months

The Story Behind Our Engagement

XOXO

Wedding Wednesday: The First Six Months

It's been over six months now since Todd and I have been engaged. So crazy to think how quickly the time has gone.  Today I'm sharing my first of many Wedding Wednesday posts.  I always find these posts fun to read, so I thought you all would enjoy reading about our wedding planning adventure.  You can anticipate reading these about once a month or so.  Today, we're going to jump in with so you're engaged, now what. 

It seems like the current trend is to graduate college, begin adulting, and get engaged. Whether this is the track you're on personally or not, this is what my social media newsfeeds are telling me, and I think your feeds are probably reflecting something similar.  We are definitely in the midst of wedding and engagement season, so it seems like every day somebody new is celebrating their engagement. While we are talking about fresh engagements, I wanted to give a shoutout to my college roommate and her man on their recent engagement. She's a major blog supporter- Hey Jocelyn! 

Months One and Two 

With getting engaged at a young(ish) age, it can be exciting but also a little overwhelming once you sit down and start the planning process. Because let's face it- most of our Pinterest dream boards don't just automatically convert into real life plans.  I was definitely hit with this reality during month one of our engagement. When you first get engaged, take a couple of weeks to bask in the happiness. Everyone around you will be filled with joy, and it's important to cherish those moments with friends and family.  I was lucky enough to be given a variety of wedding magazines with our congratulatory engagement gifts. If you didn't receive any magazines, then I highly recommend you take a trip to the story to purchase a few. The key is to preview them before purchasing to make sure you're getting something substantial not just a book of ads.  Start your planning my creating a vision for your wedding- season, month, time of day, color schemes, venue type, etc.  I used Pinterest and wedding magazines to help create our vision. Initially, we thought we wanted a fall wedding, but we ended up choosing a December wedding. It worked better with our schedules, budget, and venue we wanted to use. 

Once you have a time frame picked out, then it's time to start picking out the venue. Before selecting venues, be sure to create a budget because it will help you determine what venues you can and cannot use. We looked online at a bunch of places before deciding where to actually look at.  We visited a wide variety of places- formal ballrooms, all inclusive venues, DIY venues, barns, rustic chic venues, etc.  It was helpful to visit all different types of places so that we could compare them all side by side.  We chose to visit the venues as a couple rather than with our families because we wanted to preview without everyone else's opinions. Ironically enough, the venue we chose was actually the only one we brought family to just because of timing. 

Wedding Venue Preview- One of the chandeliers at our venue. 

Month Three

The next step for us was to choose a photographer. This was a no brainer for us. Todd did a ton of research prior to our engagement, so we decided immediately that we wanted to use the same photographers that captured our engagement. The sweet couple was so personable and did a fabulous job.  The only choice we had to make was the length of time to hire them for.  We ended up opting for the eight hour package.  It would allow us to have pictures while getting ready, at the ceremony, during cocktail hour and dinner, and the start of dancing. 

Months Four and Five

We chose a venue where we have to hire outside vendors to supply everything (food, beverages, desserts, dj, etc.).  This option felt overwhelming at first, but after doing some research it has not been too much of a headache. The next item to check off the list was finding a catering company.  Luckily, our venue provided us with a list of recommendations.  We contacted a handful of companies and requested prices and menu options.  Based on these two facets, we selected two companies to meet with in person.  Essentially, we were looking for someone who could supply us with as much as possible- the more inclusive the better! After attending the tasting, we felt very confident in the company we are choosing for our big day. 

Month Six

The month has been so busy with non wedding aspects of life (grad school, coaching, tennis, teaching, job promotions, and so much more). Needless to say we have made little progress in the wedding planning department.  We are in the midst of selecting our DJ and ceremony musicians as well as figuring out how to propose to our bridal party.  

In cased you missed it, here's our engagement story!

XOXO

The Story Behind Our Engagement

In case you didn't figure it out from my post a couple of weeks ago... I have some big news to share with you guys. Last month Todd and I got engaged! I thought it would be fun to share our love story with you all from both of our perspectives, so today we are sharing with you how we met and our engagement story.

How we met:

Her version:
Before I give you the story behind the engagement, I want to provide you with a little bit of a back story.  We met in 2010.  I was a Junior and he was a Senior in high school.  We ran in similar social circles but our paths never actually crossed.  It was Labor Day Weekend, and I was playing in the annual season opener tournament for field hockey.  Our school always hosted the tournament, so we usually had a decent amount of fans (friends from school) present/taunting the other teams and referees. In between games the boys thought it was funny to try to play field hockey. Being the competitive athlete I was, I was slightly peeved that a stranger was using my equipment. Although, I did think the stranger was pretty cute. 

Disclaimer- it was a big recruiting season for me and I was just getting back to playing after a major concussion. I was very serious about getting recruited and I was worried what would happen if my stick was damaged. 

Looking back, I still laugh at this! Later that night my best friend and I went to our local grocery store to pick up a sweet treat.  We opted for what we thought would be the quick check out option, self check out, because we did not want our ice-cream to melt.  Well, the quick option was not so quick.  We continuously tried to scan our items, but each time we did our lane was closed.  We thought the machine was malfunctioning, but several minutes later we found out it was the stranger from our game earlier. He confessed to playing a joke on us and chatted for several minutes.  Later that night we became friends on Facebook. Within the week we started to talk on messenger and in the halls in between classes.

The following weekend we had our first "date".  He came over on a Sunday morning to make breakfast with me.  We made pancakes and bacon.  He was disappointed to find out that my parents house did not have a coffee maker. (Anyone who knows Todd knows his obsession with coffee. He drinks it morning, day, and night) At the time my culinary skills were sub par, so let's just say I was not a expert pancake flipper.  To this day he still makes fun of me for flipping the pancake onto the stovetop rather than the griddle. I guess my cooking skills didn't scare him away because a week later we officially started dating.

At the time I thought he would be a cute date for the annual Homecoming dance and somebody fun to hangout with, but I didn't have high expectations for a relationship with longevity as I was a junior and he was a senior.  He was Mr. Popular (homecoming king, junior prom prince, athlete) and I was just another junior girl crushing on him (honors student, athlete with hopes of being recruited for college, and a girl filled with goals).  I thought we would last through the school year if we were lucky, but clearly we were made to last much longer than that.

Fast forward a bit.. We have been together for seven years now.  During this time we endured going to college at separate universities, a kidney transplant, breast cancer, field hockey games, conference tennis matches, many weddings, tons of family functions, beach trips, nights out with friends, and our fair share of growing pains.  We have been able to grow individually and as a couple, which is one of my favorite things about us.  

His version:

As I entered my Senior year of high school, all I wanted to do was have fun and not worry about any drama. The first three years of high school I played football, and for my last year of high school I decided not to play (We were not very good at the time...). So one Saturday morning I decided to volunteer to record the big east coast wrestling tournament. Our school was hosting the tournament, and I got extra credit in my TV and Video class for volunteering. We stood there with video cameras on a tripod and recorded guys wrestling in tights. Not how I imagined spending my Saturday morning, but like I said it was for extra credit. I got bored very easily, and my friend told me to leave the camera on record so we could go to the field hockey tournament. We walked down there and talked to some of the girls we knew on the team. I never thought that day would be the one that I was going to meet the love of my life. I had work that night. I spent the shift on the self checkout lane. I noticed two girls, who went to my school and who were on the field hockey team, were checking out in one of my lanes. I wanted to prank them, so I closed their lane anytime they tried scanning their items. They realized I was closing their lane on purpose, and I was laughing at them. Later that night, I received a Facebook request from one of those girls... after tons of messages we exchanged phone numbers and started talking more. Little did I know, seven years later, I would become engaged to this girl and my life could not be better.

The engagement story

Her version:
This past October we celebrated our seven year anniversary.  It felt surreal that we are actually so much closer to being together for ten years than we are to year one.  Over the years our celebrations have changed from gifts to the gift of experience.  My gift to Todd was tickets to the Eagles game on our actual anniversary, and his gift to me was a photo shoot with a professional photographer. I was honestly less than impressed, but I was a good sport while he assured me that "it would be fun because it's something we haven't done out of all the years we have been together." Plus we are the worst at remembering to take pictures together, so I guess the thought of having actual pictures wasn't so bad. I was a little surprised that he picked out a date, time, and location without consulting me, but I honestly thought nothing of it.  As the time got closer and closer, I began to get more irritated at the thought of doing this photoshoot.  I shared quite openly that I was not a fan of the whole outing as our dog was not allowed to come, work was at a stressful high for me, and we needed to save the money. I also pointed out that it was dumb to get pictures taken when we would just have to do the same thing in the hopefully near future once we got engaged.  Well..while I was busy vocalizing this to my closest friends, Todd was secretly busy showing them all pictures of the ring he bought me and sharing every detail in his engagement game plan.

The day of our photoshoot, I slept in like really slept in for the first time since school started.  I woke up at 11:00 am to a flurry of text messages from him about what time I would be ready, what I was planning to wear, and other silly things.  I cooked breakfast had some coffee, and finally woke up enough to begin to think about the day.  I had no idea what I would wear and was oddly not stressed about finding the perfect outfit.  Eventually, I managed to come up with three possible outfits.  I sent some lovely mirror pictures to Todd and my friends of my outfit options.  After several votes, I finally picked out my favorite outfit.  It was a chilly fall afternoon, so I opted for jeans, riding boots, a plaid shirt, and a black quilted vest. I spent longer than usual doing my hair and makeup simply because I did not have to rush off to work like usual.  I enjoyed taking my time, and was quite pleased with how my look turned out.  Part of me was actually getting excited for our date.

Todd picked me up and we were on our way to the park.  He was smily and pleasant as always.  He assured me once again that we would have a fun afternoon. On the way we chatted about what we wanted to dinner, but we never figured it out.  We got to the park and met up with our photographers. We walked around, posed awkwardly, and laughed for the first half hour.  I realized that I was actually having fun! About mid way through I looked over and thought I saw a dog that looked like ours, but my attention was quickly changed by getting set for our next picture.  A minute later my brother came around the corner with our dog.  I was so confused, and when I asked what they were doing. My brother told me he was bored and decided to come see us. Still I thought nothing of it even though we lived an hour away from the park.  I then turned to see Todd reaching for something tied around Brody's neck as he was getting down on one knee! I was so surprised. Todd said some things that neither of us honestly don't really remember.  I do know he said my full name and asked if I would marry him. .. the two key things in a proposal. We then spent the next half hour taking more photographs. Todd was so prepared that he brought signs with cute but corny sayings on them.  We took some pictures with our dog and of just us.

The photo shoot ended, and my brother said he was taking the dog home because Todd was taking me out to dinner.  We parted ways and headed to the restaurant Todd made reservations at.  I tried to call my both of my parents and neither of them answered! Todd offered that they were probably sleeping. We got to the restaurant where I was greeted by my second surprise of the day. We walked in to find both of our families seated waiting for our arrival.  It was so nice to be able to share our night with the people that are closest to us.  I was even lucky enough to have my aunt (who is a jeweler) join us and put the ring guard on my ring since it was too big.   At the end of dinner, the restaurant's manager kindly provided us with complementary champagne (my favorite) for a toast.  Before heading home, I was provided with surprise number three of the day.  Todd arranged for my brother's best friend to dress up and be our driver.  It was so funny! Plus after a few drinks neither one of us were in any shape to drive home.  My parents were generous enough to keep the celebration going by having everyone to their house after dinner. We kept the champagne flowing, had dessert, and continued to share our excitement as a big family.  Once we got home, Todd surprised me again.  He gave me three bottles of wine each with my new monogram on the label.  By the end of the night I was exhausted and over joyed.  The day could not have been more perfect from the weather to how awesome our photographers were to the little details that Todd thought of.

I am so excited to begin planning our big day and to be able to spend the rest of my life with someone who has such a big heart.

His version:
The day we got engaged was on a beautiful November afternoon and she had no idea it was coming. I hired a professional photographer to take pictures of us. Mich thought it was just for fun because we never had them done before. Prior to that day, I told Mich our son (dog) Brody was not aloud to come because the photographers were not "dog people". She was not pleased with that one bit. 

Little did she know, I had a plan in place. She and I were going to go the park, and mid way through the shoot I'd have her brother bring Brody with him to the park so he could deliver the ring. As we were getting pictures taken of us, her brother showed up with Brody and she was so confused. Her brother walked Brody up to us, and I had a pouch on his collar. As I knelt down to get the ring out of the pouch, I asked my best friend to marry me. 

After she said yes, I told her we had dinner arrangements at a restaurant for the two of us.
She tried calling her parents on our way to dinner, but they didn't answer. Thats because I surprised her by having her family and my family meet us at the restaurant! 

Lastly, so we didn't have to worry about driving home, I asked her brother's friend if he could drive us home...after a few celebratory drinks it's never a good idea to drive. As we were leaving, I gave the keys to her brother's friend and he pulled the car around. As we walked outside, her brother's friend had a chauffeur's hat, white gloves, and a bow tie on. We got home that night and made a toast to our engagement. That is my side of the story of how I asked my best friend of seven years to marry me.

We would like to give a big thank you to our wonderful photographers! They did an amazing job. If you live in our area and need someone to snap your important moments, contact us for their information and a referral!
(No this is not an advertisement..just genuine appreciation)

We hope you enjoyed reading our sappy story!
xoxo