Weddingbee bios

I am definitely a city girl - I've lived in DC, Prague, and Atlanta, and couldn't imagine living in a small-town. My FI, on the other hand, is from a small town in Tennessee. We're the exact reverse of "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey!

 

I recently graduated from UGA with a degree in Criminal Justice, but am not planning on going into law enforcement. I recently applied to work with Teach for America and will be hearing back from them soon, and hopefully entering into the interview process soon. My ultimate goal (at the moment) is to teach high school english.. We'll see if that pans out in the future. I'm currently living in Lexington with FI and two other roommates for the year while FI finishes up school.

 

FI is still in school at UK looking to get his Fine Arts studio degree in photography. He currently does some publicity work for UK band program, and also does some portrait and wedding photography on the side.

 

Both of us played in band, and we met through a band fraternity. We were both president of our respective chapters, and think that says a lot about us We're currently going to play in a community band here in Lexington for this coming year.. Me on clarinet and Him on euphonium.

 

I am originally from Maryland, and my FI is from Tennessee. I attend the University of Georgia and FI goes to the University of Kentucky and we met in Orlando, Florida.

 

In 2007, my band fraternity (co-ed) held it's biannual National Convention in Orlando. One of my friends at UGA had worked at Bands of America for a couple of years, where she met my FI. She introduced us at the National Convention, and our two chapters hung out the rest of the week. At the time, I had a boyfriend (who I was about to break up with) so I wasn't really looking for a relationship. At the time, I remember thinking that he was a great match for me - we had such similar interests and beliefs.

 

A few months later, UK played UGA in football. He traveled down with the pep band and several UGA people went to their hotel the night before the game to hang out and catch up. We ended up talking by ourselves (mostly about fraternity related things) for the rest of the night, and agreed to talk more online and maybe get a retreat set up for the spring semester with our two chapters.

 

In March of 2008, UK played UGA in the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament, so my friend and I again went to visit with their chapter since it was in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. That was the same night that tornadoes hit Atlanta, and in particular the Georgia Dome. My friend and I couldn't leave the city, since all the power was out, trees were knocked down, parts of buildings were in the street.. so we stayed in their hotel that night. My FI and I got to talking, and decided we should go on a date. The rest is, as they say, history!

It was the weekend of our one-year anniversary, and we were in Toledo, OH for a district convention for our fraternity. He was running for a district office, so we were very busy running his campaign and meeting with other chapters. Our friend was having dinner at a pizzeria to celebrate her 21st birthday, and we were already running late to the party from having to  talk to other chapters. As we were walking to the restaurant, my FI wanted to go walk by the river and see a "gazebo" that he had noticed and pointed out earlier in the day. I was freezing and wanted to go to the restaurant, but he insisted. As we were standing there, he started telling me that he'd talked to my dad about proposing to me, and received his blessing, and that he'd ordered the ring.. but it took a while to make a ring and it hadn't come in yet. Needless to say I was a little disappointed, but he said we might as well take a picture since we were in this gazebo. As he went to pull my camera out of his jacket, he pulled out the ring box instead! He said.. "well?" and I said "you haven't asked me a question yet!" so he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Of course, I said yes!

Right after our engagement - he proposed at 11:30pm, so it was pretty dark, and my camera is not really the best.

Since I love pictures (and he's a photographer).. we went back the next day to take some of our own engagement pictures :)

 

My FI is a photographer, and I love pictures, so engagement pictures were one of the first things I got super-excited about. Plus, it was a chance for FI to finally be in front of the camera, and for me to have someone else in the shot with me! All photos by Nam Nguyen, www.namnguyen.com. 

 

J is my MOH, and she has been my best friend since 6th grade. We had our fair share of disagreements in middle school, but luckily we got over it and now she's like my sister. She's about to go teach Chinese in Guam - she's definitely my crazy adventurous friend, and I can never wait to see what she's going to do next!

This is my brother K, and he's my MOH (Man of honor!) He's younger than me by three years, but he was my best friend growing up and I'm so excited to have him stand up on my side of the wedding party. I did promise to not make him wear a dress or carry flowers :-)

I have known BM C since 9th grade, when she moved to MD from Minnesota. I couldn't be happier that I met her, as we really are two peas in a pod! Even more exciting, she recently moved to Atlanta and will be able to better assist with wedding planning duties, as well as being closer to me!

BM K is my little brother in our fraternity, and she is literally just like me! It's seriously ridiculous how much we have in common. It's also convenient because her BF and my FI get along soo great -- we joke that they are each others boyfriend ;-)

Last but not least...

BM S probably knows us as a couple better than anyone else. She is also a brother in our fraternity, and was present at every moment of our relationship progressing! She is one of my absolute favorite people, and is the best road-trip buddy you could possibly have. She currently is working with Georgia Sea Turtle Conservation, but I'll be excited to have her back on the mainland come October.

So the first dress of my dreams turned out not to be.. and I went shopping again! The second try was much more succesful.

I ended up with Marisa #692.. and I bought the sample, so it was in my possession right away, which is very exciting.

 

From the website 

Real buttons down the back!

And my unaltered, dirty, unpressed gorgeous sample, taken in my bathroom by myself..

Closeup of the beading..

The best full shot I could do by myself :-)

And we just finished several fittings! Obviously, I made a few alterations..

We'd gone looking for rings for about 4 months before he actually proposed.. and there were several strong contenders. However, as soon as I tried this ring on, I knew it was the one. It has such great detail (that I haven't taken pictures of.. yet..) with small diamonds mounted underneath the center stone.

It's a Martin Flyer, Flyer Fit, so my wedding band will fit snug next to it, and it will look like the sides of my e-ring.

 

 

 

I knew I wanted colored shoes, since I'm known for always wearing really colorful or otherwise gorgeous heels. I saw these on zappos or some other online store like that, and then realized it was cheaper to order them straight from Nina! So my wonderful, purple wedding shoes just kind of fell into my lap for $70! Definitely a great shoe find day for me.

Both the ceremony and reception will be held at Cator Woolford Gardens in Atlanta, GA. One of the things I love about it (besides the fact that it's gorgeous) is that all the rental money that we paid  goes to support The Frazer Center, a program that provides services for disabled adults and children.

That's the view from where we'll be standing. We didn't realize we were standing at the altar area when we took this - don't ask me how we missed it, I have no idea. They just got a new gardener in, and they're completely resodding and planting even more flowers.

One of the many paths in the garden. There's several meandering throughout, and it should make for some great pictures.

This is the tent that is already on the property. It's not huge (despite how big it looks in this picture) so we'll probably be renting another tent. By next year, the gravel will be concrete and much easier to walk in.

Venue - Cator Woolford Gardens cwgarden.com

Photography - Nam Nguyen Photography, LLC namnguyen.com, blog

Videography -Atlanta Wedding Productions atlwed.com

Caterer - Endive Catering endiveatlanta.com

DJ for reception - Spectrum Entertainment spectrum-ent.com

Brides Dress - Bridals by Lori bridalsbylori.com

Engagement Ring - Markman's of Knoxvillemarkmansdiamonds.com