We're getting married!

We are finally under the 4 month mark and boy are we excited! So much so that we sent our wedding invites out today WAHOO wayyy earlier than any wedding website would recommend (ha!) but we are just too excited and couldn't wait a second longer. Within 2 minutes our sending them out we got 3 RSVPs which made both Chris and I do a little happy dance in our respective countries (Chris in Denmark, IJ in Cyprus!) Since the last time we've caught up Chris came on another visit to Cyprus, we've begun pre-marital counseling, but most exciting of all our parents met for the very first time!!! There was a lot of anticipation going into the meeting of our two worlds. Chris and I were both so happy when my mom and dad decided to come out to Copenhagen for Christmas so that they could meet the Alstrup-Staal duo before our big day. As soon as my parents said yes the planning began for the most epic Danish Christmas experience ever. I can happily say that the meeting exceeded all expectations and both parties got along SO well (so much so that Chris' parents will be staying with mine during their time in Texas!!) My parents got to experience a typical Danish Christmas with lots of herring, carolling around a lit (literally live candles in the tree) Christmas tree, and dinner games that my mom has already vowed to bring home to Texas. As for our personal live now, we have one more month apart until I head back to Copenhagen for 3 weeks and then back to Texas where Chris will meet me middle of June. Until next time!

EK! We are officially counting down y'all. Since we've basically had the LONGEST ENGAGEMENT EVER. The wedding has always seemed in the super far off future but holy cow only 8 more months!!!! YAY. Currently, I (IJ) am living in Cyprus playing (maybe) my last season abroad or at least away from Chris. While in Cyprus, I'm also devoting a lot of my free time to my online business ISM Virtual Assistant Services to make sure we can afford our wedding and life afterwards. Chris is busy in DK doing the same thing, working 3 jobs, one as a teachers aid, one as a youth coach, and one as the announcer for the elite games with Gentofte Volley (Chris says his 4th job is being an amazing fiancé to an amazing woman). On a scale of 1-10 I'd say we have been at about a 12 on being on top of things to the wedding. I mean we had our venue, photographer, and videographer all within 3 months of being engaged. BUT Y'ALL I dropped the ball big time. Literally yesterday I remember a tiny little detail...A VISA FOR CHRIS. Yah, things that you forget when marrying a foreigner. In order for Chris and I to get married "the right way" in the states we need to file for a fiancé visa that can take 6- TWELVE MONTHS to get. Lol oops. So, next on our list is getting that fiancé visa applied for, everyone cross your fingers for us!

Cat's out of the bag! WE GOT MARRIED! But not officially (we are still saving that for you guys). This summer we went on an amazing adventure. Part of our trip was visiting IJs family in Malaysia. The trip was to celebrate her mom, Lulu's, 60th birthday but it also served as a time to celebrate our future wedding and IJ's middle sister, Chi Chi's marriage. The two couples participated in a tea ceremony which is a traditional Chinese Wedding Ceremony. In our (IJs) culture only the family is needed to perform a wedding ceremony in order for it be to recognized! Hop over to the photos to see pictures from the tea ceremony!

After a lot of deliberation we've decided to have our wedding in good 'ol Texas! The wedding will be in July 7th of 2019 in Hillsboro, TX at The Eagle Historic Warehouse. We are so excited to get married and to celebrate with our closest friends and family. It will be a merging of two cultures and we hope to incorporate many of the fun Danish wedding traditions. Bonus points to any Texas guests that can speak Danish by wedding time!

Chris proposed to IJ (me) on Dec. 22nd which happens to be his dad's birthday. A few weeks before Bettina (his mom) had told me they were planning a surprise for Michael (his dad) to celebrate. Chris' parents have been doing dance lessons for a few years now so the plan was to surprise Michael with family dance lessons (supposedly Michael wanted to spend more time with the family). Well the day before the big surprise I went shopping with Chris' mom and we planned to get our nails done but there was a miscommunication so only I was able to... Also a week earlier Chris told me that he booked a hair appointment for me as a nice surprise before I left to go back and play. This hair appointment happened to be on the 22nd as well. That evening Bettina and I go early to decorate the dance studio with Danish flags (it's a Danish birthday tradition) and set up chips and some drinks for after. Tomas (the dance instructor) comes and we all talk for a while about how excited we are to surprise Michael. When they start coming up the stairs into the dance studio we all hide in the bathroom together and me and Tomas literally have a mini squeal session about how excited we are to surprise him. Chris and Christian (Chris' brother) walk his dad in with a blindfold, we yell surprise, and we go on with the dance class. At the very end of the class Tomas tells us we each need to perform the dance and I'm like okay that's a weird amount of pressure for a birthday surprise. Bettina and Michael go first and I'm nervous to follow up their act. It's Chris and my go and we pretty much kill it...at the end of the dance there is a part where the man goes on his knee and the girl walks around him (when practicing this part I actually say 'hey this is good practice for you' wink wink) so during our performance I sasaché around and find Chris with a ring in his hand! Best. surprise. ever.

Depending on which of us you ask you may hear two completely different stories. Chris' story starts 5 years ago when his volleyball club in Denmark, Lyngby was bringing in the first foreigners the women's elite team had ever had. For Chris it was love at first sight but it wasn't quite time for the two of us to meet. IJ's story starts 3 years ago when she decided to pursue her playing career one more time and moved back to Lygnby. We became fast friends when IJ messaged Chris one day when she saw him walk outside a cafe window. After a few months of friendship the friendship turned to romance and the rest is history.