Weddingbee bios

Hello hive! My name is Miss Randirobot. I am 23 years old and currently finishing up my master’s degree in public relations at Quinnipiac University. I graduated in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Central CT State University. Right now I am working as a graduate assistant in two departments at my school. After graduation I will be doing a paid internship in NYC. I live in Connecticut in a tiny apartment with my kitty AB (Abraham Button). I got serious about following Christ when I was 16 years old and I currently run the middle school youth group at my church (we were actually a part of the church plant!). My favorite animals are cats and unicorns and my favorite color is pink!

Brendan is also 23 years old. He works as a Senior Game Advisor at Gamestop. So basically his job is to talk about video games all day (and play video games a lot too!). He is an extremely talented musician. He leads the worship at our church every Sunday. He is a fantastic singer and plays the drums, guitar and bass. He is intelligent and thoughtful and seriously one of the most entertaining people I know. Brendan loves bears and wolves and his favorite color is brown! The best thing about Brendan is how he is a man after God’s own heart. I am truly blessed to have him in my life!

We love our Apple products, Harry Potter, making HD films, and photography. We are both very technologically inclined. I moved closer to school so we live about 25 minutes away from each other now. Our schedules are very incompatible since I started grad school, so we usually see each other about once during the week and on the weekends. When we do hang out we usually watch Netflix, bake together, go to the movies, and take walks or bike rides.

We met when we were 19 years old. We have been together for almost 4 years and plan on getting engaged this summer!

This is the first picture we ever took in June 2007. And here is a recent picture of us... 

 

It all started with a simple Myspace message..."Christian? Doesn't drink, doesn't smoke? SCRUBS? Hm, I was just poking around and you seem cool! haha!"

The response was equally as simple..."Are you a robot?"

From there, Randi and Brendan were almost inseparable as they spent the summer of 2007 falling in love. What was thought to be just summer love turned into a growing relationship with ups and downs, incredible happiness, and great sorrow.But these two have remained steadfast. Ever growing in their love for Jesus and each other, they are now ready to take the next step into the great wilderness of life. But they take heart because they know no matter where the road takes them, or how rough things get, they will be together. Forever. <3

As written by my amazing fiance Brendan. He said it perfectly so why try to make it any better?

So we met on MySpace. How embarrassing! But it's not so creepy because we had a mutual friend (in real life). When I mentioned Brendan, Alex said that Brendan was the nicest kid ever and I should hang out with him sometime. I don't think I would have really hung out with him unless someone like that assured me of it!

We also had a few near-meets. Before I even knew who he was his band played at my youth group but I was too tired that night so I didn't go! A few months later I went Brendan's youth group because Alex was playing a show there. WEIRD! I think if we met at any other time it wouldn't have worked out as fantastically as it did!

Brendan proposed to me in Nashville on May 24, 2011. We were down in Nashville because I was presenting a research paper on social media at an international conference. We were staying at the Opryland Hotel, which is so amazing. It is like an indoor resort with a beautiful atrium.

During the first day we were there, Brendan started acting really funny. He seemed very distant and I got a little nervous. (It's funny how you think you are going to know the signs in advance but man I had no idea!) It was getting late so we walked over to the light and water show before dinner. He said he was going to hold my phone for me since I was wearing my dress and didn't have my purse. Little did I know he was live-tweeting the entire event! It was the perfect coverup because I had no idea what he was doing.

After the light show we walked over to this amazing gazebo that was all lit up. We had walked by it earlier and it really caught my eye. I kept gushing over it and I loved it. The next thing I know he is down on one knee asking me to marry him. I kept saying "No! No! No!" because I was in disbelief. It was so awesome and cute and perfect.

Plus, by the time I had to present my paper the next day I wasn't even nervous! I was so blissfully happy!

Check out Brendan's live-tweets right here (bottom to top):

Brendan and I took our engagement pictures in September at Lyman Orchards in Middlefield, CT. Our good friend Sam Burr of White Pigeon Photography took our pictures. I am usually the person behind the camera so it was a little crazy to be on the other side! See the rest of the photos here.

 

 

My bridesmaids are going to look absolutely darling on my big day. At first, I was going to let them all pick out their own dresses in all sorts of shades of brown. However, I stumbled upon Delia's Ballerina Lace Dress and fell in love with it! I actually want one for mysef!

I love the dress because it was only $49! I didn't want to put them out and make them buy something expensive. Plus, the cut looks flattering on all three of them! I LOVE that it is made out of lace too. I really wanted a lace dress for myself but now I can live through them!

My bridal shower was last weekend and I gave my bridesmaids their gifts to show them how thankful I am! I got them handmade headbands from Mustard Studio. The headbands have white feathers, tulle, and buttons! It is going to look awesome with their dresses!

So I have this terrible dilemma of having plugs. I've had them for about 10 years now and I am at 1/2 inch. When I was 17 I took them out, only for them to shrink to a size 0. Instead of having nasty holes just hanging in my ears, I put them back in. Finally went back to a 1/2 inch and embraced that I have forever mutilated my ears until I can get them surgically fixed (like my brother did before he entered the Marines!)

Well for my wedding, I wanted to do something about my plugs. I do have second holes but I thought that my plugs might take away from my earrings. So I decided on these babies...

I absolutely love them! They are a light shade of blue so they take care of my "something blue." Plus, they don't really look like gauges! They are fancy enough for the wedding and can actually pass off as just big earrings! I ordered them from The River is Everywhere on Etsy.

I thought about getting custom made plugs for my fiance and I, (bride & groom), but this is definitely cheaper. And definitely more feminine. It's really going to complement my look!

 

My super amazing fiance made our wedding invitations all by himself in Photoshop. He is super talented and so hard working! They just went out on Friday and we have gotten so many compliments. This is just a preview of the awesomeness of our wedding!

Originally we had booked a blue grass band to play our reception. But about 2 months before the wedding, we had to make some major cuts to the budget as I still didn't have a full-time job and we were relying on that money to cover some of the details.

The band was actually really cheap to book (I literally went on Craig's List and said I need a blue grass band to play my wedding for $300-500 and it worked. Much cheaper than DJs & other bands that wanted over ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS for the night!)

So we put that money elsewhere (really it was all the small random stuff) and I spent a few hours making a playlists on my iPod for the night. We borrowed legit speakers so it worked out great. As you can tell from the picture, everyone danced all night! I even took request from my friends and made sure to add them to the playlist. It was perfect.

I separated each playlist like this

Before Ceremony - 30 mins of awesome music to ensure no awkard silences

Ceremony - Our processional & recessional songs

Dinner - 60 mins of awesome music to play during the food

Dancing - the best music ever for dancing!!!!!!

 

Here's the songs we played

Processional: Sigur Ros - Saeglopur

Hymn: Be Thou My Vision (performed by best man & bridesmaid)

Recessional: Arcade Fire - Wake Up

Grand Entrance: Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

First Dance: Jimmy Eat World - For Me This is Heaven

We were so blessed to have an engagement party with our church family! One of friends from church offered to open up her house for us so we can celebrate! Though we got engaged in May we couldn't have the party until August, but it was still perfect!

So we really wanted to have an engagement party with our church family because a lot of them aren't gonna be able to come to our wedding (our wedding is on the small size). It was a potluck so everyone brought delicious food to share. It was mostly cloudy that day but the rain held off until AFTER the party!

We played a trivia game for who knew the couple the best and the winner got a iTunes giftcard!. We also played the "shoe" game/"newlywed" game. Brendan and I had to sit back to back and answer questions about each other by holding up either a bride rubber ducky or a groom rubber ducky!

It was just a very laid back day. We had lawn games out in the beautiful backyard. My friends came with their kids and they were just running around. My other friend made delicious cupcakes that we topped with toppers from Etsy. And my maid of honor made a pie with hearts! It was a fun filled day and I feel very loved.

 

Check this out! My bridesmaid and future sister made the most amazing bridal shower invitations. I LOVE the hot air balloon (I happen to have one similar on my back). And it flows so seamlessly with the theme of the wedding and our wedding invitations!

My bridal shower had hot air balloons everywhere! I had hot air balloons on the table and hanging from the ceiling! The favors were homemade dipped pretzels and wildflower seeds! The packets were shaped like hot air balloons!

We had apple cider with cinnamon sticks in them! Lasagna was served (my favorite food!) We played a few cheesy games, including bridal scattergories! One of my favorite games. I got some awesome and really practical gifts! It was wonderful!

 

 

Within days of the shower, I sent out my thank you cards. (I am super proud of myself that I got them out so quickly!) Check out the awesome stamp I used!