So as many of you
have probably heard, I got married back in the first part of
September! Now my lovely Mother decided that it would be better if I
was the one to write about it since I did most of the decision making
so here we go.
It all started about this time last year when Josh and I began to realize that this was going to be more than just a passing thing. (Though he will tell you he knew that from the start.) As we began discussing when we were going to have this monumental event, I was still working up at MiVoden as one of their taskforce employees for the winter, and I was hoping for at least one more summer before I had to give up working at camp. So keeping that in mind, we began looking at dates in mid to late 2016, so that I could still have the time at camp that I wanted. That quickly became mid 2016, but it didn't stay that way for long.
Unbeknownst to Josh, I had been thinking about asking to move the wedding up to September of this year as June of '16 was feeling like a long ways away, and he'd only settled that because it was the earliest I was willing to go at the time. So when he was up at Camp helping with a group over Christmas, (yes, he was amazing and gave up Christmas with his family to come work in the kitchen with me!) I surprised him and asked what he would think if we moved the wedding to this September, I'd never seen him so excited!! And this all happened before we were even actually engaged! Though that wasn't too far in the future I would find out.
I left camp the end
of February to come and work for his parents at their daycare. As if
I needed any more proof that I'd found an amazing man, Josh drove 4
hours up to get me, just to drive back the next day, though, in his defense, doing so
would mean we were 4 minutes apart, rather than 4 hours.
We stopped at Olive Garden on the way back to celebrate our 6 month anniversary, but little did I know, he had another reason for us to stop. If I'd have been paying attention, I would have noticed that we got seated really fast for how many people were there waiting when we got there, and we had pretty fast service too. But I wasn't, so I didn't think much of it when Josh insisted we order dessert, even though I said I just wanted to get to my Grandparents (where I would be living in College Place) because I was tired. I was about to find out he had a VERY good reason for insisting though, because when they brought out the dessert, “Will You Marry Me?” was written on the plate! Next thing I knew, he was down on one knee in front of me pouring his heart out in a speech I can't remember most of. Of course I said “Yes!” and we proceeded to laugh and hug both each other, and his parents who were there with their camera for the whole thing.
After that it was time to get down to business, as I only had 6 months to pull together a whole wedding! Luckily I already had some of the major stuff figured out, like a general idea of how I wanted it to look, as well as what colors I wanted to use, and, at that point, the venue we were going to use, though that would change, but more on that later. When I showed my parents the color scheme I'd picked out, my mom gasped, and for a moment I thought she didn't like them, until she told me that those were the same colors they'd used for their wedding! This ended coming in very handy, as it meant I had the option of using things from my parents wedding, which I most definitely did. My mom was willing to cannibalize her bouquet, which was mostly silk flowers, so she had kept it, all these years, it even survived all of the moves, and the tornado!! So she let me use some of her flowers, and we used the goblets that they'd used too. I had always wanted to have my wedding up at Camp, as it had been such a large part of my childhood, unfortunately Josh didn't want to have his wedding out in the woods where I really wanted it, so we decided to use the nice big ball field Camp has. When Josh's parents heard this, they asked if I'd be willing to consider other venues closer to Walla Walla, so that there wouldn't have to be so much driving involved. At first I didn't really wan't to, as I'd already been talking with Sandy up at Camp to see how we could make this work. I did tell Wade and Barbie that if they wanted to do some research and see what venues were in the area, I would be willing to look, but if I didn't absolutely fall in love with one, we were still having the wedding up at Camp. In the end, we only went to look at 1, as all the others they'd looked at, were either too small, or weren't available on the date we wanted. I wasn't too sure before we got there, but at soon as I saw it, I immediately began to see the potential that it could have. I still told them I would need to think about it, just to make sure this was what I really wanted. After a couple days, I came to the conclusion that I could easily see myself getting married there, and that we should meet with the people who ran it to get all the details worked out.
We stopped at Olive Garden on the way back to celebrate our 6 month anniversary, but little did I know, he had another reason for us to stop. If I'd have been paying attention, I would have noticed that we got seated really fast for how many people were there waiting when we got there, and we had pretty fast service too. But I wasn't, so I didn't think much of it when Josh insisted we order dessert, even though I said I just wanted to get to my Grandparents (where I would be living in College Place) because I was tired. I was about to find out he had a VERY good reason for insisting though, because when they brought out the dessert, “Will You Marry Me?” was written on the plate! Next thing I knew, he was down on one knee in front of me pouring his heart out in a speech I can't remember most of. Of course I said “Yes!” and we proceeded to laugh and hug both each other, and his parents who were there with their camera for the whole thing.
After that it was time to get down to business, as I only had 6 months to pull together a whole wedding! Luckily I already had some of the major stuff figured out, like a general idea of how I wanted it to look, as well as what colors I wanted to use, and, at that point, the venue we were going to use, though that would change, but more on that later. When I showed my parents the color scheme I'd picked out, my mom gasped, and for a moment I thought she didn't like them, until she told me that those were the same colors they'd used for their wedding! This ended coming in very handy, as it meant I had the option of using things from my parents wedding, which I most definitely did. My mom was willing to cannibalize her bouquet, which was mostly silk flowers, so she had kept it, all these years, it even survived all of the moves, and the tornado!! So she let me use some of her flowers, and we used the goblets that they'd used too. I had always wanted to have my wedding up at Camp, as it had been such a large part of my childhood, unfortunately Josh didn't want to have his wedding out in the woods where I really wanted it, so we decided to use the nice big ball field Camp has. When Josh's parents heard this, they asked if I'd be willing to consider other venues closer to Walla Walla, so that there wouldn't have to be so much driving involved. At first I didn't really wan't to, as I'd already been talking with Sandy up at Camp to see how we could make this work. I did tell Wade and Barbie that if they wanted to do some research and see what venues were in the area, I would be willing to look, but if I didn't absolutely fall in love with one, we were still having the wedding up at Camp. In the end, we only went to look at 1, as all the others they'd looked at, were either too small, or weren't available on the date we wanted. I wasn't too sure before we got there, but at soon as I saw it, I immediately began to see the potential that it could have. I still told them I would need to think about it, just to make sure this was what I really wanted. After a couple days, I came to the conclusion that I could easily see myself getting married there, and that we should meet with the people who ran it to get all the details worked out.
The next step in
the planning was to find the right dress for the occasion. I flew
down to see my family in Tennessee in May, and to pack up my stuff. While I was there we began looking
for dresses. We found a couple that I liked
different parts of, at which point my mom began considering making my
wedding dress, just like she'd made hers. It would have been a lot of
work, but she could have done it, if it had come down to it. However,
when she and Sarah flew back out with me to do more dress searching
and other planning, we found the perfect dress just hours after we
landed in Spokane!
With the search for
the perfect dress over, I was able to focus on the rest of the
details that still needed to be worked out. One of which was what we
were going to serve for dessert. I had originally wanted to serve 2-3
different kinds of pie, and maybe peach crisp too. However, once I
began looking at the logistics of getting enough pies made to feed
almost 300 people, as well as how much it would cost, we quickly
decided to just serve peach crisp, as it would be a lot cheaper,
partly because Josh's parents were kind enough to give us several
boxes of peaches from their back yard, and also because we could make
them all our selves once the rest of my family got here just before
the wedding. Once I had that all worked out, things were in a bit of
a holding pattern, until it came time to start getting the last
minute things like the flowers and such.
Fast forward to
about 3 weeks before the wedding, and Josh and I were driving down to
Portland to pick up my mom and Sarah so we could get all the last
details worked out just before the wedding. One of the biggest things
that still needed to be finalized was the order of ceremony and who
was going to walk with who in the processional. In order to work all of that out,
my mom, Sarah, and I all met with Sue, the AMAZING wedding
coordinator that a friend of mine recommended to me. With that all
taken care of, we were in another much smaller waiting period until
my dad and the rest of the family got here.
When we drove down to get them from the airport, we made a day of it in Portland, getting little things we needed, as well as getting some very nice decorations that an old church member was kind enough to loan us. By this point we were in the final push to get things done before the big day arrived. The 2 biggest of which were getting all the bouquets and boutonnieres done, as well as making the 15 peach crisps that we were going to need. Thankfully I have a large family and lots of relatives who were willing to help out. My moms cousin and her husband who were here from Australia ended up coming over and helping my dad get all the crisps made, while my mom and Sarah and I made the bouquets with the bridesmaids. Not long after that I was sent to bed so I would be well rested for the long-awaited (well, sorta long, but not as long as some wait!) but very exciting day, the next day.
When we drove down to get them from the airport, we made a day of it in Portland, getting little things we needed, as well as getting some very nice decorations that an old church member was kind enough to loan us. By this point we were in the final push to get things done before the big day arrived. The 2 biggest of which were getting all the bouquets and boutonnieres done, as well as making the 15 peach crisps that we were going to need. Thankfully I have a large family and lots of relatives who were willing to help out. My moms cousin and her husband who were here from Australia ended up coming over and helping my dad get all the crisps made, while my mom and Sarah and I made the bouquets with the bridesmaids. Not long after that I was sent to bed so I would be well rested for the long-awaited (well, sorta long, but not as long as some wait!) but very exciting day, the next day.
The morning of the
wedding, I was up at about 6:30 in order to take my shower, and eat
some breakfast before Rachel, one of my bridesmaids, came over at 7
to do my hair. After that it was out to the venue at about 9:30, and
getting ready at 10:00 when the bridal suite was open. We were all
getting ready from 10:00-about 11:30 when the photographer arrived to
begin taking pictures. At this point there was just over 2 hours
until the main event! We did pictures in various places around the
venue until about 1:00 when the bridesmaids and I all went back to
the bridal suite to stay out of site until it was time for the
ceremony to begin. The ceremony began at 2:00, and by 2:45 I was a
married woman! After that it was on to the reception where we had
good food made by the caterer, graciously paid for by Wade and Barbie.
Once everyone was done eating, we played the shoe game, which
everyone enjoyed, especially when Josh and I gave different answers.
By about 5:30 things were beginning to wind down, and Josh and I were
getting ready to leave for our Honeymoon at the beach. After a lovely
send-off by the friends and family who had come to celebrate our day
with us, we were on our way!
All in all, it took
lots of planning, and more than generous help, both financially and
with actual set up, from both sides of the families, but in the end, our wedding day
couldn't have been more perfect!!
