We’re getting married!!

Our engagement was a complete surprise for me. In a very Ryan move, he had every single detail planned. After buying our new home, I created a budget to help us get our finances in line. He had planned our boat ride beforehand and told them I wasn’t to know that he had already paid for it, because ya know, budgets. I thought we were going to Disney Springs for dinner and a movie because we had a voucher we needed to use and since we moved to Volusia county we haven’t gone to Disney as often as we used to. While walking around before the movie started, we walked by the Amphibicars. We have always talked about going on the boats but we hadn’t been able to go yet. The employees working the boats made me think we were getting a comped ride. Sounded weird but Ryan seemed to believe it so I did too. We enjoyed the ride and the captian was hilarious. Before it was over, Ryan pulls out the most beautiful ring and asked me to marry him. If you want to know what he said, then you should ask him. I had so much running through my mind, I have no idea what he said but I said yes! He planned it perfecly because it was partly Disney (Ryan) and partly outdoors (me). We had a beautiful dinner at the Boathouse afterwards and it was completely perfect!

Ryan and I will be getting married in Napa Valley on March 2, 2020 with our parents and siblings in attendance. We still want to be able to celebrate with everyone who wants to celebrate with us but in a more relaxed and casual atmosphere. “Why did we make this decision?” It’s the inevitable question that we have received from family and friends. Before Ryan even considered proposing, our roommates were planning their wedding. In talking to the soon to be husband, I joked about the perfect wedding being one that Ryan and I get to travel to *two* new places we have never been together; one to get married and then one to honeymoon. I would jokingly say “we can invite our parents somewhere we have never been and then after the ceremony, we ditch everybody and go somewhere else we have never been. If we are spending a bunch of money it might as well get to go somewhere new”. Well when the time came and Ryan proposed, we talked about eloping (like I wanted to do) but with the amount of people we felt obligated to invite it made no sense to elope. We could spend the same amount of money and not have to trim our guest list so we quickly decided that wasn’t a viable option. I even joked about getting married at the courthouse because I didn’t care about the wedding, I just wanted him to be my husband. That obviously was not going to work out. So we started planning our dream wedding and it was a dream wedding. But it wasn’t what I really wanted. I dont want a day that is “all about me”, I don’t want people staring at me, talking about me. So about 5 months into planning our wedding, Ryan asked if I still wanted to elope. And, of course, I did. So we discussed it together and decided that we still want to celebrate with everyone who wants to come out and celebrate with us but actually get to enjoy the time with everybody. I get to have my intimate ceremony and Ryan still gets to have a big party. We hope that you still decide to come out and see us!

We are excited to share in the life event with everyone who decides to come out to Deland on June 20, 2020. We realize that this might not be what you expected at first but we hope you keep an open mind. We will be hosting a reception-like party at Venue 142 in Deland. Dress will be as casual or upscale as you would like; however, we will be wearing our wedding dress and suit. We want this to feel more casual than a traditional reception with some of the customs you’d expect. We will be providing appetizers, beer, wine, and speciality cocktails along with an amazing DJ and dance floor. Please feel free to come and go as you wish. We realize for some out of town guests that traveling for “a party” might be too much and we understand; however, we don’t consider this to be just “a party”- it is our version of our wedding that we want to celebrate with everyone that we love. We hope you decide to come out on a celebrate with us!