My Wedding Day

HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!

(Pretend it’s Monday. I’m finally publishing this 3 days later and pretending like it’s still Monday)

“Happy” and “Monday” definitely don’t go together in my book today. Today was just one of those days where everything went wrong.

To start: I quit my job. This was one of  the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make. But I’ll save that for another day and another post.

I spent my last day at work frantically uploading my wedding photos and honeymoon GoPro videos to my Google Drive and Amazon Photos accounts.  I totally forgot I had all these saved to my work laptop so I spent most of the day in tears after realizing it would take 5 and a half hours to upload and I was supposed to turn my laptop in at 10:30 this morning. Luckily my employer was very understanding about the situation and I only have an estimated 50 minutes left to upload my wedding photos and I decided to use this time to make a wedding photo blog post! It’s so easy for us to dwell on the bad things in life even while there is so much good around us! Instead of sulking about how bad my day was today, I want to remember the good times (oh how badly I wish we were sitting on the beach in the Dominican Republic right about now)!

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On August 6, 2017, Josh and I matched on Bumble and instantly hit it off. Our first “date” was actually me meeting up with him and his business partner to give them tax advice! From the start, we were super inseparable.

We knew really early on that we were soul mates.

We talked about getting married within just 2 months of dating, and decided to tell our parents in November. They were all on board!!! Once we had the whole family in the loop, we immediately booked the wedding venue.

Josh officially proposed on January 27, 2018. He let me custom design my own ring, which was the most special process I’ve ever been a part of. I chose a rose gold, 3-stone oval ring because I wanted it to be unique and completely fit my style. I am so happy I got to do this and I would completely recommend designing your own ring!

Another special process for me in wedding planning was picking out my dress. Before going dress shopping, I sat down with my mom and made a list of all the things I wanted:

1. Sleeves
2. Big open back
3. Lace
4. Buttons down the back
5. Beautiful train
6. Only small embellishments

She said: “You need to decide exactly what you want because you might not get all of those things in one. And you also might get to the bridal shop and try some on and completely change your mind.”

As we walked into our first bridal shop, I looked at the dress in the window and said “Mom, that’s my dress. It has everything on my list.” We immediately were carried away in looking at all the dresses in the store that I completely forgot about my dress in the window. My step mother walked in about 10 minutes later and said: “Chloe, that dress in the window is gorgeous and everything you wanted!” I put it at the back of my dress options to try on last. When I finally got to it I fell head over heels in love. We came back 2 days later and purchased it. I will forever know this dress as the “Window Dress”.

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August 6, 2018, exactly one year after meeting, we got married. And it was the most beautiful and magical day of my life! Having all of our friends and family in one place at one time is the most special feeling in the world.

Among those family and friends were my 9 closest friends who stood next to me as Josh and I exchanged vows. I am truly blessed to have such supportive ladies in my life, so much so that I truly couldn’t narrow my bridesmaids down any less than 9. Because I had 9, I decided to have 3 separate colors of dresses to give some variety. I absolutely loved how they turned out!! The brand of these dresses is Bill Levkoff and they were purchased at Amore Bridal KC.

Having 9 bridesmaids actually worked out really well for Josh because he too has a lot of very close friends in his life! I found EXACT matches of ties on Etsy! These ties are my proudest moment of the entire wedding planning. I can’t believe I got them to match so well haha.

Josh actually bought his whole suit at H&M and his tie from Amazon! Wayyyy cheaper than my dress, that’s for sure!

Our ceremony began at half past two on the dot.

I created a mashup of love songs for my brother to play on the guitar during the professional, bridal entrance, and recessional (I actually started my college career as a music composition major). It was so sweet and special to have my brother play these songs I wrote as I walked down the aisle.

My father walked me down the aisle where we were met by my step-father. I asked both of them to give me away because they both have played such meaningful fatherly roles in my life. I didn’t tear up walking down the aisle until I saw my step-dad gazing at me with watery eyes. I have the most wonderful men in my life and to say I’m blessed is an understatement. After this wedding I gained another father (Josh’s dad) who is equally wonderful and supportive.

During the ceremony, Josh thought it would be a good idea to play a little trick on his almost wife. When the pastor asked the Best Man for the ring, he didn’t have it. We went through every Groomsmen before finding the ring at the very last one. The pictures say it all…

 

Me: If you ever do that again…………

I got over it quickly…

We were married at exactly 2:51pm, according to my grandma. Short, sweet, and to the point! What can I say, I just couldn’t wait to marry him!

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Our day was truly magical. I didn’t believe in soulmates until I met Josh, but I now know that God placed us on this earth to find each other. Every piece of our past molded us to meet one day and fall in love.

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And we lived happily ever after!