When Daniel proposed on June 23 of 2018, I was in complete shock. “As you should have been!” Everyone says. But what I mean by shock is that I had no. idea. it was coming that day, let alone any time within the next two years. I mean sure, we had talked about it and I may have not-so-subtly pinned ring photos to my Pinterest Board titled Wedding Bells, but we had only been dating for a little over one year. There was no way this would be happening anytime soon. And then it happened and you should see the photos. Maybe if I’m feeling a little generous, I’ll post them later. But for now, believe me when I say that I would lose every game of poker if I played – my emotions are spelled out clearly on my face.
The following weekend, Daniel and I sat down at his favorite coffee shop and we brainstormed all that would need to be done in order to pull off this extravaganza. We both love fall, camping, the outdoors, so we knew we wanted that time frame because we wanted an outdoor wedding. I had also told him I didn’t want a long engagement. Which meant that if we wanted to satisfy both of our top requirements, we would be getting married in a little over 3 months. When Daniel originally mentioned October, I was so caught off guard, thinking he was joking. No one plans a wedding in only 3-months. No one has the budget to plan a wedding in 3-months. We knew we would be paying for the majority of the wedding expenses by ourselves (since as tradition goes, the bride’s family funds the wedding, at least the majority of it, but Sadie had already been engaged for three months at that point and my parents’ were financially well committed to that wedding. If we were going to do this, the majority of it was going to come from us.
The main things we focused on that day were the guest list, the mandatory items (venue, seating, shelter – weather in Wisconsin is pretty unpredictable – food and decor) and telling our families. That last part made me the most nervous; I worried that our parents would think we were crazy or that we were hiding something, per the rushed engagement. After we sat down and talked to each set of parents individually, the amount of support and encouragement we got was amazing, which solidified our decision. We would be planning our wedding in three-months.
All photos in this post were taken by the wonderful Lindsey Cole.
eastanywhere.com 