To be honest, one of the main reasons why I decided to publish a blog at this exact time in my life is because I wanted to share my wedding planning experience. As most girls, ever since I was little I have been absolutely infatuated with all things wedding related. From the flowers to the gowns, I find all weddings to be absolutely beautiful. In fact, it has always been a dream of mine to own my own bridal boutique someday. Maybe that dream can still come true, who knows!
Along with weddings comes love (hopefully), and just as I have always adored the beauty of weddings, I’ve always been envious of the fairytale love that I’ve seen in movies and read about in stories, and hoped that one day I would find it, too. So, it only seems appropriate that I dedicate my first Wedding Wednesday to the man who has made my fairytale love story come to life, my fiance, Alex.
Alex and I met three and a half years ago, right after I first moved to Louisville. I was hired at a school that I did not interview for in person, but via Skype, so I was totally brand new to the school and had not met anyone yet. A few weeks into my first year of teaching, and this cute 7th grade teacher caught my eye. It’s funny because my absolute best friend (and now Maid of Honor) made a prediction our senior year of college that I would fall in love and marry another teacher, but I turned my nose to the idea mainly because I didn’t want to marry a teacher. I know what you’re thinking: I didn’t want to marry a teacher because of money. WRONG. I didn’t want to marry a teacher because I personally know how I am as a teacher, and how exhausted and stressed I get, and I needed to be with someone who is the opposite of me.
Well, lucky for me I found myself a teacher who is NOT like me whatsoever (in all the best ways). One thing led to another, and before I knew it I was getting ready for our first date. Alex took me to the Speed Art Museum at the University of Louisville, which is one of the reasons I fell for him. Now, let’s remember that I am fresh out of the college, sorority girl and frat boy world. So, have I ever heard of a man taking a girl on a date to an art museum?! Never.
After *secretly* dating for a few months, one of my coworkers (who will also be a bridesmaid in my wedding!) asked one day why Alex was spending so much time in my classroom, and what we were doing always walking out of the building together. This coworker also became one of my closest friends, and I just couldn’t hide it any longer.
Flash forward to two years later, and Alex and I are spending a weekend in the fall in Boston. He had never been, and I had only been once when I was in high school, so I was so excited to see the beautiful northeast in the fall. After spending the day taking a walking tour with a Patriot soldier, Alex said that he had planned a surprise sunset sail of the Boston Harbor for us before dinner. I had a slight feeling in my stomach that this was not going to be any ordinary sunset sail, mostly because Alex is HORRIBLE at planning surprises. He always gets excited about them and ends up telling me, ruining the whole surprise aspect of the surprise!
Now, something you should know about Alex is that he always has something to say, and is one of the most outgoing people I know. So, after about 30 minutes on our sunset sail and noticing that Alex had barely said a word, I felt that feeling in my stomach again like something was up, this was not a typical evening with Alex. Just as the sun was about to go down behind the Boston skyline, we anchored to take a few pictures with the gorgeous backdrop. As I went to grab my phone to see if the photos turned out alright, Alex pulled me back to him and got down on one knee.
Would you know that I honestly cannot remember a word he said, other than “I love you”?! I blacked out in that moment, but at the same time, can remember it perfectly. I remember having to grab hold to the railing on the sailboat because if I didn’t I think I would have fell overboard! I remember immediately bursting into tears because I was so, so happy. I remember only looking at Alex’s face, and not even noticing the beautiful ring until after he had said “did you even see the ring?!”. It was the most perfect engagement to the most perfect man. I am so thankful for his sweet soul planning such a beautiful moment, as well as the sweet captain who captured our photos!
That was October of 2018, and our wedding is planned for June of 2020. I’ll share why we have such a long engagement in future posts, and am looking forward to sharing all steps of our wedding planning journey!
Engagement photos courtesy of Eighty Eight Photography.