WEDDING! History & Planning

PART ONE: The History & Planning


**Warning: Fun Story and Picture Overload**

Hope you enjoy!

It's that time of year again! I'm seeing weddings everywhere and our anniversary is tomorrow! We have been married for 6 years. We have had our ups and downs and more downs than ups but our love for each other and the commitment we made has brought us through all the downs and are up way above where we ever were. 
Now I'm proud to say we are HAPPILY MARRIED!!!! It took 6 years to get us to a place where we are comfortable, can talk things out like adults, and respect each other. We also are finally falling into our respected role that God created us to do. I'm so grateful that I married a man that has the same family values that I have and that we even agree on most parenting issues too! 
So here is a seek peek into our past. How we met, how we got engaged, the planning and wedding!
HOW WE MET! (July 2004)
My friend and I went up to the Greeley Stampede for some fun. We decided that that night we would find our husbands. Now of course we were joking and just having fun. We just wanted to go up there, blow off some steam and enjoy talking to some cowboys.
We started having a bunch of fun and walking around when we wandered into a hot tub booth. My friend asked if she could get into one and they said yes. So she took off her shoes and got in fully clothed. I on the other had was not getting in (I was wearing white). Then some of the sales staff started buying us drinks and talking and having fun. Eventually I got into the hot tub but just sat on the side. After a couple of hours of having fun, the sales staff was leaving and the guy that was 'security' for the tubs was coming. So M came prepared to party it up in the hot tub like he had been doing that last couple nights. We hung out, drank some, and just enjoyed the night util it closed at 2amish. He gave us a ride to our car only to find out that it was locked behind a gate that had a huge sign saying they would lock the gate at midnight no sign that I saw. So we couldn't get our car. Being the nice guy, he took us back to his place, gave us some dry clothes and let us stay there until we could get our car out. Finally around 4 am the company answered the phone and we were able to get our car. So M gave us a ride back to our car and we made plans two day later (July 4th) to come up and watch the fireworks. So two days later I called in sick to work and head up to Greeley again to watch the fireworks with my friend and M. On our way up there I got a voicemail from M saying he got free tickets to the Chris LeDoux concert and he would try to catch up with me later. How nice! I got ditched for a concert. He did end up finding us after the concert and we watched the fireworks together before we headed home. After that all was history. We had a lot of good and fun times but also some very difficult ones too. I'm really not sure why we stayed together except that God had a better plan for us.
(Sorry no pictures from this time because they weren't digital and I'm not going to dig them out of our basement at the current time.)
HOW WE GOT ENGAGED! (Mayish 2005)
We had been living together for about 9 months and we started talking about getting married, we went and looked at rings, picked out what we want and set up payments, and talked with my parents. My mom gave us her old wedding band that she had saved from her first marriage for me. M tried to plan a special proposal for me even though we had already started planning the wedding. We had decided May 20, 2006 would be our wedding day. Finally my boss scheduled me to work an evening shift and M made sure to get home early to prepare. When I walked into the house from the garage the stairs leading up to the livingroom were lined with roses and candles and there was music coming from upstairs. I started crying right then and there. When I made it to the top of the stairs he was around the corner on one knee with the ring in his hand. There were more candles and roses all around. He asked me to marry him and of course I said yes! After a few moments of celebrating I, as embarrassing as it is to admit, had to say I have to make a phone call. No I was not calling to spread the news. Most everyone already knew. I had been on the phone with my friends dad when I pulled into the garage and lost service. If I didn't call him right back he would have started panicking that something happened. M still makes fun of me for doing this and it is embarrassing but I did it none the less. 
PLANNING! 
Shortly after we were officially engaged we started talking about the date and not wanting to wait that long so we changed it. August 6, 2005 was the knew date! We had about 2 months to get everything done. We got questions from everyone. "Why so fast?" "Is there a reason why you need to get married in August?" My dad even tried to bribe me to wait until next May. He told me I could almost double my wedding budget if I would just wait longer. We really couldn't answer their questions to why so fast. We didn't really have a reason we just didn't want to wait. Even the idea of a bigger wedding didn't make me even consider pushing it off to our original date. So we got to work. First was the dress! That was the thing that would take the longest in most cases so my mom and sister-in-law headed out to start the shopping with me. I loved a few dresses from Maggie Sottero and found a boutique that wasn't to far away that we could look at. So here are a few dresses that I tried on:  

I really didn't like anything that I tried on. Nothing felt right. Then some how my mom convinced me to try on the one dress I hated online. It was shown in burgundy and I just hated it. But to get my mom to stop bugging me about it I tried it on and I fell in LOVE with it. It was so gorgeous. I couldn't see myself wearing anything else but that dress. I bought it and I still love looking at photos of it. It was definitively for me!

Once that was taken care of and I got it ordered and found out it would be ready in time (another lucky break because it should have taken at least 3 months to get) we started everything else. I knew that I wanted a Red, Black and White wedding. M wanted a 1930's feel to the wedding where he could wear a fedora hat. 
We ended up finding a place where our girls could rent or buy their dresses and M's friend gave all the guys a great deal on their tux's. Our wedding party looked great come wedding day even though the fedora's got left at home. 
I printed our invitations and hand tied a bow on each one with the help of my dad's finger. I made all of our center pieces, also tied and glued bows and flowers on all of our bubbles. My mother-in-law helped us make all the flowers and decorations for the wedding. 

To see how the day turned out click here.