It's (finally) Time to Celebrate!!

Wheewwwww! After months of hoping and adjusting plans, we decided to postpone our wedding celebration just weeks before our wedding date. This decision was incredibly hard to make and felt like true heartbreak at the time. The day we'd been meticulously planning and dreaming about was now seemingly out of reach. It was hard but we knew without a doubt that it was the right decision. No champagne and cha-cha slide is worth putting your family in danger. We decided to still go ahead and get legally married in an intimate ceremony in Breckenridge, CO on our original date. Our family and bridal party rallied behind and we managed to pull off a sweet and beautiful ceremony and share a lovely dinner together. It was truly magical and something that we are so grateful to have experienced, despite the circumstances. Since our marriage, we have adopted the cutest puppy in the whole wide world (this is an unbiased fact ;)), moved to Colorado and purchased our very first home. We are settling in and riding the wave of life together. Although we are legally married, it is still very important to us to celebrate with our family, friends and in the eyes of the Church. We both come from big families that are due for a reunion, and our friends deserve a dance floor and an open bar. We are beyond excited to have the wedding we've always dreamt of and celebrate our marriage. We so look forward to having you all with us in our sweet home Savannah! Thank you all for the unconditional love, support and understanding throughout this year. Let's party!!

John and I met in the fall of our Freshman year at the University of Alabama (Roll Tide). We were in the common area of our dorm and John was playing ping pong with his roommates, while I was watching the Broncos vs. 49ers game with mine. Peyton Manning broke yet another NFL record **Insert huge thank you to Peyton Manning** and John hollered from across the room “he’s not even good!” And naturally, as a true Coloradan, I had to set the record straight… After the first night we met, our mutual friends kept bringing us together. We quickly bonded over our love of football and family, and fell in love over the course of our Freshman year. We saw each other through college graduations, multiple moves, a new state, job searches, new friends, old friends, forever friends, a new home, life changes and all of the laughs that come along with half a decade of loving your best friend. Now we’re ready for our next adventure.

To put it simply, the proposal was perfect. John planned a weekend getaway for us in Hilton Head, South Carolina. On Friday, September 20, John and I left work early and drove to Hilton Head, reminiscing on the five incredible years in our rearview mirror. We arrived at the Sonesta Resort, and I was blown away by its beauty as we explored the grounds. Every time John would reach into his pocket, my stomach would drop and my heart would flutter–it was like we didn't know how to act in front of each other anymore, and the anticipation was getting the best of us. We had dinner at a local Italian restaurant and enjoyed every minute of our time together. After we finished dinner and our bottle of wine, we looked at each other and said: "let's go get engaged!" We rushed back to the resort, racing to catch the sunset on the private beach. I, in a dress and heels, and John, in dress pants and a button-down, giggled and stumbled our way down the beach to find a perfect spot. John dropped to one knee, and suddenly, we were in our own little world. He said the sweetest words that neither of us remember because all we could focus on was spending the rest of our lives together. Emotion overcame both of us before I practically shouted, "YES!" Once the world stopped spinning, we asked a passerby to take the first photo (a perfect dark, blurry picture) of us as an engaged couple. We then celebrated in secrecy for the next two days, before telling our family and friends the following Sunday. We'll become husband and wife just one day shy of the year anniversary of our engagement.