We’re making it official!

Garrett and I met at a memory care facility… I promise we weren’t the patients. We were both caregivers! We started as friends, casual hellos and goodbyes. After a night out with coworkers we decided to take our friendship further. We went to Shanahan’s Pub & Grill for our first date (so romantic I know). We would share drinks, laughs, and smiles over Shanny fries and games of pool. Our story only grew from there!

Garrett had the ring for a couple months before proposing, finding the right timing never seemed to work out. We found out we were expecting little Mia close to the end of October and then began the morning sickness. November 3rd is my birthday and we went to breakfast where I could hardly eat at all. We had planned to go out to dinner later that night but all I could do was lay in bed because of the extreme exhaustion and sickness. As I’m lying in bed, Garrett comes to bring me a ginger ale and some water to help with the nausea. He tells me how much he loves me and how much he would never want to spend this life with anyone else. He looks at me and pulls out this little ring box and asks if I would marry him. Staring at the ring in shock, getting more nauseous by the second I said yes.

We are incorporating a couple Mexican traditions into our wedding, being that it is part of the bride’s heritage. One tradition is incorporating Godparents or in Spanish called Padrinos into our wedding, we have asked a handful of people closest to us to help with specific items for the wedding to assist with costs, but also to provide all their wisdom and guidance along this journey to our wedding day! Another tradition that we will be doing is El Baile Del Dolar (the money dance) originally began in Poland sometime in the beginning of the 20th century has become a very popular tradition in Mexico. My mother and her mother before her along with aunts and cousins have performed this dance at their weddings and we would love to carry that on. After the traditional bride and groom’s first dance, we will then dance with our parents and our children, after that will commence the money dance. People will line up to dance with either the bride or groom for a small dance and this gives us a chance to have one on one time with everyone that wishes to participate and gives our guests an opportunity to give us their blessings or well wishes, then the guests will pin or tape money to the bride or grooms clothing then finish the dance to give the next person in line a turn. The money is a considered a gift and meant to help with housing expenses or honeymoon costs. This is not mandatory by any means but the couple is excited to perform this tradition with anyone who wishes to do so! Everyone will be given pins or tape at the beginning of the reception, see ya on the dance floor!