February 23, 2019 • 0

09.16.18 Erika & Zack

The Meeting

Erika and Zack first met in high school at their church youth group after finding out they had mutual friends.

We quickly grew a friendship over our passion to go on serving trips and volunteer.

The First Date

Our first date came four years later! We had such a great friendship and were nervous about taking things further. We were visiting a friend away at college and went to his families %5 prom where you had to go to the thrift store and find a prom outfit for $5. Zack made a big deal out of it and even did a “promposal” because I didn’t get the chance to go to prom in high school.

We are started having conversations about getting married a couple of months before he proposed and it just naturally felt like the next step for us.

The Quirkiest Things

I’m not sure if this counts as quirky, but Zack literally saves everything I have ever given him. Even little stick notes or to-do lists I write for him. He will even save receipts from special dinners or activities.

Erika always has to make a to do list. Even if she already knows what she is going to do, she has to write it down. She is the most organized planner I know!

The “I Love You”

Zack said I love you first. From what I remember, it kind of just came out as we were talking about something!

The Proposal

We were in Cancun with my family for summer vacation. Zack got me a past, present, future ring so he planned activities for three days centering around our past, present, and then future he proposed. He did it at sunset on the beach and then we went out for drinks to celebrate with my family after.

The Wedding

One of our favorite moments was right after we said our I do’s. We made our way back to the bridal suite to meet up with our bridal party but before they arrived we shared a couple of minutes just the two of us reliving what just happened. I think it is so important to have a moment to yourselves just to take everything in and take a breather!

The Song

We danced to “Already in Love” by Joel Ansett for our first dance. We actually brought Joel’s EP album at a coffee shop in Pennsylvania when we were visiting friends. We fell in love with his music and knew we wanted this song at our wedding. Our favorite lyrics are “no matter what you’ve done and no matter what you do, I am already in love with you.” This is special to us because we have been a part of each other’s lives for such a long time and know that we have much more life to live together and no matter what we will always have a love for each other.

The Venue

The Haight was actually the only venue we saw! We knew the vibe that we wanted and thought we wouldn’t be able to find something like that in the suburbs. After some searching I found The Haight on Instagram and knew this was the place. We loved the exposed brick and wood floors and how easy the space was to transform.

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The Marriage

We love just being able to do life together. Things like doing laundry or going grocery shopping are a little more exciting when you get to do them with someone you love to be around.

The Advice

Enjoy the season of being engaged! I feel like too many couples rush right into wedding planning instead of basking in the new stage of your relationship. It’s so important to not forget about your relationship and the reason you are getting married in midst of all of the planning.

The Shout Outs

We would love to give a shout out to Catherine at Belvedere Catering and she did amazing! She helped a lot with the planning process as well and even came to my final meeting with The Haight. We also still can’t stop raving about how awesome our taco bar turned out!