17 days to go! Hopefully all of you have reserved your Hotel room and have your trip planned out. We can't wait to share our celebration with you! There will be a 14 passenger shuttle bus that will run twice from the Hotel to the Ceremony, and twice from the Reception to the hotel at the end of the night. Shuttle times are as follows: From the Hotel to the Ceremony: 1pm and 1:40pm From the Reception to the Hotel: 9:35pm and 10pm Spots are limited, so if you would like to sign up to be on the shuttles, please email me at ecpfahl1@gmail.com. The wedding party, Handicapped and Elderly guests will be given priority.

93 days to go! (not that we're counting or anything) Invitations have been sent out, so if you moved recently, I hope you set up mail forwarding! The past year has gone by so fast but we're thankful we had so much time to plan for this wonderful day. We hope you all can make it and help us celebrate! Don't forget to RSVP by mail or by the RSVP tab above, and to reserve your Hotel room, check out our Room Block link on the Travel tab. For FAQ's about our wedding weekend and travel info, check out the Travel tab and the FAQ tab. See you in 3 months! <3

As far as I know, all of you have received your Save the Dates and Invitations. Now it's time to RSVP! Please keep in mind that we need the RSVPs back this early so we can relay the guest count to our vendors. RSVPs need to be in my June 10th (only 9 days away!!) so please make sure to send them in or submit them here on the RSVP tab! If we don't receive your RSVP by June 20th, we will assume that you cannot attend. If you're traveling and need a Hotel, please use our Hotel block link to book your room. It is available on the Travel tab.

Wedding planning is well under way and we're both very excited to take a break in February for a short Jamaican vacation! Check your Mail boxes in March/April for your wedding invitations, and please let us know if your address has changed in the past 6 months!

Will and I met on my 21st birthday (New Year Eve). Well, technically, we met after midnight, so New Years Day, January 1st, 2013. Since it was the Big 21, I was out at The Keg, a well know college bar in Edinboro, PA, where we both attended college. As the New Years ball dropped and we partied the night away, a friend of mine coaxed a friend of Will's into having an after party at Will's house down the road. The first memory I have of Will was of him walking in the snow down Meadville Street in his red jacket. A few weeks later, we started hanging out and building a friendship. Six months later, we officially started dating. We studied together, traveled to Virginia Beach for a swing dancing convention, and flew to Jamaica with a group of friends and had a blast! After graduating college in 2014, we moved in together. A year after that, we moved to Greensboro, N.C. in search of warmer weather and a change of scenery. It was a stuggle moving to a new place with no friends or job security, but we made it work and took care of each other every step of the way. I am so grateful to have such a caring, compassionate partner that encourages me to follow my heart and achieve my goals. Will is so supportive and I think we bring out the best in each other. Through strive and tragedy we are reminded that life is finite, so Every morning we kiss each other and say "I love you". We cherish every moment with each other, we take on challenges together and reach for the stars. Our ultimate goal is happiness, and I think we've found it with each other. <3 5 years ago I never would have thought I could meet the man of my dreams in a bar on my 21st birthday, but life is full of surprises. I can't wait to see what's next.

Will had just arrived home after work on Monday night, January 8th. He had the ring in his pocket. L: Hey, so do you wanna go ring shopping this weekend? W: *shit. she knows.* "Uh, sure." Later on in the evening, I walk into the office where Will is on the computer watching youtube. I tell him about this beautiful white gold garnet ring that I found online and go into a rant about how the diamond industry is bullsh*t and blahblahblah. As I describe this ring that looks nothing like the ring he got me, his thoughts were *Well shit, that's the opposite of what I got you.* I showed him a picture of the garnet ring excitedly. As I looked at his extra-calm, carefully-curated uninterested-in-this-topic face, I felt defeated. *Every time I bring this topic up, he's not interested. I don't want to pressure him, but damn, it's been 5 years.* L: "So, what do you think about this one?" W: "I don't know, they just don't strike me as engagement rings..." L: "But you know the image of a diamond engagement ring is just a societal pressure that was drilled into your head as a kid. They don't have to be diamonds at all. " (goes on rant about the diamond industry and BS pricing again) W: "Yea. I don't know, I just like the classic style I guess." L: clearing getting upset and teary eyed- "Why don't you like any of the rings I like?" W: *seeing that I'm getting upset and he's dying inside* "....Because I already got you a ring." L: "....... What?" W: *turns around and grabs a box from his desk drawer and pops it open* L: (there was a jumble of words that came out of my mouth something like the follwing, As I was turning into a puddle of tears on the carpet) "What? is this real? Are you SURE?! omg what is happening right now." W: "You're my best friend and of course I want to spend the rest of my life with you." I stared at the ring in absolute shock, like my brain broke and I didn't know how to process it. After a while, I took the ring, put it on my finger and said Yes.

I'll try to tell this story from both perspectives. What was happening in Lisa's mind leading up to January: "Oh my god it has been 5 years already. Why hasn't he proposed yet? It is me? Maybe he doesn't want to get married. Maybe he does... or Maybe he just doesn't want to marry me. I want to say something, but I don't want to pressure him. *inner termoil* Ooo I know, I'll casually look up rings and see what he thinks. *Realizes the entire diamond industry is total BS and completely falsely inflated and based on a super successful marketing scheme from the 50s.* Oh so he probably hasn't proposed because diamonds are so F***ing expensive! I've got it. I'll look up diamond-alternative rings." So I looked up all these super unique, pretty, diamond-alternative rings, found some great ones that I liked, and showed Will. He was not enthused. Every time I would bring up rings in a conversation, he would divert the conversation and brush it off. He didn't seem to be interested in the subject AT ALL, which of course was upsetting to me. So, when January rolled around, I asked if he wanted to go window shopping for rings, ya know, "Just to see what looks good on me, for my skin tone and all. No pressure." He said "Sure, we can go next weekend." January 3rd, 2018.

What was (probably) going on in Will's head leading up to January: "Boy, she sure has been bringing up rings a lot recently." We travelled up to PA to visit family in the first week on December, and Will snuck off to Reeds Jewelers, where a family friend, Debbie, worked. (I have no idea what went through his head in regards to when he decided he wanted to marry me.) Will: "So, I want to buy her a ring. Here's my budget." Debbie "Uh, ya gotta give me more than that, Will. Does she have a Pinterest or anything like that?" Will: "Good question." He then proceeded to steal my phone while I was sleeping, scroll through my Entire pinterest account, and found...nothing. Then he remembered a picture of a ring I had shared on Facebook OVER TWO YEARS AGO. He scrolled through my Facebook, and his, and couldn't find it. He then stole my phone again, and scrolled through Thousands of photos in my gallery, to find a Screenshot I had taken of that ring I had shared on Facebook, over 2 years ago. He sent it to Debbie, custom-ordered it, and hoped it would come in by Christmas. What he didn't realize was that custom rings take ~a while~ to make. So as I kept bringing up engagement rings, he kept pushing the conversation away, trying to keep his secret hidden. (I have a tendency to be very hard to surprise, and find things out quickly, but not this time.) Will had the order delivered to his work place, so I wouldn't find it in the mail by accident. January rolled around and he had agreed to go window shopping with me the following weekend. The ring had not been delivered yet.