Our Proposal & Wedding, The Great Gatsby Soiree

Well folks, it’s been one whole year since we got hitched.  It seems like it flew by.  This past year has been filled with lots of great memories and a few rough patches, but Taylor has been by my side the whole time loving and supporting me.  I can’t thank him enough for being the amazing partner he is.

How did this whole thing begin?  Well I will tell you.  It actually all started in July of 2011.  Taylor and I had lots of mutual friends who told him about me and he decided to add me on Facebook.  Shortly after adding me, I posted about how I needed business cards designed and made for my princess party business.  He responded to that post saying that he would love to help me out since design is what he does.  We decided to meet at Applebee’s to sit down and come up with a design.

I show up at the Applebee’s and there is this really tall guy waiting for me.  We sit down, talk about/design the cards, chat about ourselves and have a nice dinner.  We go our separate ways.  My first impression of Taylor is that he’s a slightly weird, mommas boy who I suspect is not into my gender.  He seemed nice enough, but I never in a million years thought we would be anything more than a designer of my cards.  Taylor’s impression was a complete 180 from mine.  He said as soon as he saw me step out of my truck that it was like a movie scene where everything slows down and the wind blows gently as I walk toward him.  He says that at that moment, he knew he was going to marry me.

Time went on, he got my cards done, we kept in touch.  We hung out a few times.  I was casually dating some people.  Over time he started to grow on me.  One car ride we were listening to Disney songs and he sang every part and knew every word.  I was shocked.  This is when I started to fall for him.  Over time, I fell in love.  It wasn’t a quick thing for me.  I like to take my time.  If he had had it his way, we would have been married after a year.  We dated for a long 6 years.  I had to make sure he was the one.  I made sure we had lots of discussions about things like children, politics, religion, money, etc.  All important questions to ask before you decide to get married.  When I felt like I was ready, I told him I was ready to look at rings.

I started looking around online for rings.  I fell in love with one that was a 1920’s art deco style.  It had sold on Etsy, so I couldn’t have it.  I continued looking but my mind was stuck on that ring.  We started looking in ring shops around town for vintage rings.  I never really found one that I fell in love with.  We ended up at Summerlin Jewelers during our search.  We found that they had the most vintage options at affordable prices. We discussed with them about getting a ring custom made.  They gave us a quote as well as one other shop in town, but their price was better.  I gave the shop all the pictures and specs I could find on the Etsy listing for the ring I loved.  They custom made it for me and it turned out gorgeous.  Now I knew Taylor was paying off the ring over time.  We had planned a trip to Disneyland in November of 2016.  I thought that maybe he would pop the question there because of our love for Disney, but he told me he still had some payments on the ring.

So off on our trip we go.  The day started out like any other normal trip.   Once we got there we realized a lot of the things we liked were closed for renovation.  We decided that we would try all the stuff we had never done before.  We watched a parade during the daytime, we ate foods we hadn’t tried, we rode rides we would normally pass by.  At some point we met up with Taylor’s lovely coworker Terry and her husband.  They happened to plan their trip on the same days we did.  We grabbed lunch and I got to meet them for the first time.  After lunch, we went to ride more rides.  Some point thereafter, we end up walking through New Orleans Square and happen to pass by a caricature artist.  Taylor says, “we’ve never done one of these before, let’s sit down.”  I went along with it, but asked him if he even knew how much they were since he didn’t even ask.  It was Disney, so you know it cost a pretty penny.  I just kept pestering him about paying that much.  As the artist drew us, Terry “happened” to be right nearby “trying” to get a seat at the Blue Bayou restaurant.  She asked if we minded if she filmed the artist drawing us.  We didn’t mind.  As the artist drew on, a crowd started to form.  I thought that was odd, but figured that probably happens sometimes.  After a while she finished and told us to come see.  I walk around to find that the picture is of Taylor proposing to me.  He gets down on one knee and pops the question.  I of course am in sooo much shock that it’s ridiculous.  I say yes and everyone applauds and congratulates us.  I really honestly was in so much shock for the next hour that the whole thing is all pretty hazy.  I am not easily surprised.  I almost always figure out surprises.  He got me pretty good.  Here is the video.  It happens at 1:16.

 

 

It was all very exciting.  I finally got to start planning my wedding.  In case you hadn’t noticed yet, I love big parties and costumes.  While starting to plan the wedding, I decide on a Great Gatsby theme because it is vintage, still somewhat costumey and a very elegant theme.

I wanted to try to have the wedding in Vegas, but knew it was too expensive and too hot.  We ended up deciding to get married down at Mt. Woodson Golf Club in Ramona, CA.  We know the owner and he let us use the venue for free which was super helpful!  It is also one of the most beautiful golf courses you will ever see.  Very green and I wanted to do an outside wedding.  The only struggle with a destination wedding is that you aren’t there to plan everything local, but it all worked out.  It also ended up being very hot down in Ramona, so we didn’t really escape the heat, but we saved a lot of money!

The ceremony took place on the #10 tee box.  Not really any decorations, just an arbor at the end with a flower garland wrapped around it and some white chairs.  The reception space was just a short walk away up on their event lawn.  We had a large tent with market lights, a small dance floor, our sweet heart table and tables for the guests.  Everything was decorated black, white and gold.  Half of the tables had wine bottles that my sister and I had painted as well as vintage photographs from the 1920’s and some small tea candle votives with black and gold lace that we glued on to them.  The other half of the tables had Eiffel tower vases with pearls and feathers.  Our sweetheart table had a custom Mr. & Mrs. sign that my good friend Erik made for me.  It also had some flowers.  The big oak tree in the event area had beautiful lights strung around it all thanks to our friends the Gerards.  We had a vintage suitcase as our card holder and the guest book was a bunch of little wooden hearts for everyone to sign.  I later took them and glued them all in a shadowbox.

All of the bridesmaids wore 1920’s flapper dresses in black or silver and wore headbands to match.  We custom made their bouquets.  My sister in law Krystal made the flowers for all the bouquets out of felt.  We then took brooches and put them in the bouquets.  The flower girl wore a little silver dress with a headband and the ring bearer wore his grey and black outfit.  The groomsmen wore grey and black with vests and ties.  My Uncle Duane, the minister, wore all white with a red bowtie.  The groom wore a black tux with a purple bowtie and I of course wore white with a white headband.  I had my makeup and hair done to match the 1920’s theme.

For the reception we had a cocktail hour with a cheese and fruit platter.  We also hired a caricature artist for all of the guests to have their caricatures drawn throughout the evening.  I had Buca Di Beppo cater the event, which was easy and delicious.  For dessert we had a cookie/brownie sundae ice cream bar.  I had a tiny cake made for Taylor and I to cut.  Wedding cakes are ridiculously expensive!  Our DJ and Emcee were fantastic.  They are called Premier Entertainment.  They took all my song lists and executed them perfectly throughout the night.  They had great energy and kept the party flowing.

We had some friends from the church down in San Diego who own a 1920’s car and they offered to drive us in it.  They drove me up to the ceremony and drove us away after.  It was a lot of fun and I am so thankful they offered to let us use it, especially for the pictures.

The ceremony was very short and sweet.  I think looking back at the video, the ceremony was only about 8 minutes long in total.  This was my Uncles first and only time officiating a wedding ceremony.  He was so sweet to go get ordained for us.  He was a bit nervous, but did a fantastic job.  He wrote a beautiful ceremony for us.   I walked down the aisle to “I See The Light” from the movie Tangled, which is our song.  After the ceremony we walked back down the aisle to the “A New Hope, Ending Theme” from Star Wars.  We then started the process of all the crazy photo taking.  Here is a quick shout out to my beautiful and sweet friend Michele who took wonderful photos for us.  She did a fantastic job.  After photos, I changed out of my wedding dress into a white flapper dress.

It was time to be introduced to the party.  We walked up the walkway to the song “White Wedding” by Billy Idol.  I thought it fitting since it was our last name. ;P  The Emcee introduced us and we went into our wedding dance.  I chose to do a viennese waltz, because what girl wouldn’t want to be spun around the dance floor like a princess on her day?!  We danced to the song “Married Life” from the movie UP.  Taylor was super nervous but did a marvelous job.  After getting that big moment out of the way, the party started and the food was passed around.

 

We all enjoyed dinner and Sterling and Scott did their speeches.  They were heartfelt and funny.  The night then proceeded to become a major dance party and fun was had by all.  We did the garter toss, the bouquet toss, the money dance, the father/daughter and mother/son dances, the longest married couple dance and cut the cake.  The garter was caught by our friend Damon who is getting married next year, yay!  The bouquet was caught by our friend Kaelyn who got married a couple months after us.   My grandparents won the longest married couple title.  Cutting the cake was fun.  We weren’t going to smoosh the cake in each others faces but the crowd demanded it and Taylor gave me permission to shove it in his face.  I got the chocolate frosting up his nose.  He wasn’t fond of that part.

All in all it was a fun day/evening and I am so blessed that we had all the love, support and help that we did that day.  We really appreciate all that everyone did for us.  It will be a day and memory that I will cherish for the rest of my life.