Meet our Pin to Win Wedding Contest Winner!

Hello! I am so happy to have been asked to contribute to the blog! And if you’re wondering who this crazy girl is and why I’m here, well, my fiance and I were lucky enough to win the Pin and Win Wedding Contest sponsored by Storymix Media, Gigmasters, and the Man Registry with prizes from the Wedding Paper Divas and Judy T.

In this first post I’ll introduce us and talk a bit about our wedding, but be sure to check back for some tips on using Pinterest to plan your wedding and things not to do when using Pinterest for your wedding.

For your viewing pleasure, here is the John and Kelly venn diagram. Feel free to skip over it to the part about how we met and he proposed.

How We Met: Sparknotes Version

We share a lot of the same friends from undergrad and were introduced through John’s best friend who is now married to my “gramma” in my sorority.

How We Met: the Long Version

I was hanging out with my girlfriends at John’s fraternity house. We ended up in the living room of the boyfriend of one of my friends. His roommate stopped by to get a beer and was semi/sort-of introduced to everyone. This roommate caught my eye with his big brown eyes but I was distracted by his hideous Cubs. I threw out some anti-Cubs comments (I’m a White Sox fan) and we traded some insults before we went our separate ways.

The next weekend my friends and I were back at the same fraternity house, where I ran into the roommate with the big brown eyes and Cubs hat again. This time I caught his name — John — during an intense game of ricochet. After some more Cubs/White Sox chatter, we got to talking and the rest is history!

John got a job in the same city where our school was, which allowed us to develop our relationship while I finished up my degree. We spent that whole first summer just being young and fun and eventually in love.

How He Proposed

Now for the good stuff! It was a Saturday night in April, about three weeks before I was to graduate from college. My sorority formal had been the night before and I had spent all day getting my hair done, getting snacks and my house ready for guests, and making the senior superlative sashes (I got most creative but my favorite award was most likely to use an alter ego at the bar). Needless to say, I was exhausted on Saturday and did not want to do anything but be lazy and park myself on the couch. And that’s exactly what I did after we had lunch at John’s apartment. John spent the afternoon picking up around his place, coming in and out to run errands, and I was still on the couch. He seemed to be keeping himself busy with dishes and whatnot in the kitchen so finally around 10 o’clock, I went in the other room to take a little nap until he could take me home. About 20 minutes later, he comes to get me, very frantic and claiming there is something wrong with his computer. He asks me to come on the other room to take a look, and I groggily and reluctantly go in the other room. And, boy, was I happy I did! Instead of a malfunctioning computer, I found this:

And this conversation ensued:

John: Kelly, you have made me so happy and I can’t believe that I love you as much as I do. I can’t imagine my life without you.
Kelly: (says nothing, just standing there awestruck, hand over mouth)
John: Will you marry me?
Kelly: (nods head a million times)
John: (stands up, places ring on Kelly’s finger)
Kelly: (leaps into his arms)
John: So I guess, that’s a yes??
Kelly: YES!! YES!! YES!! (laughs) I can’t believe I didn’t say yes to begin with!

Then I put two and two together about the errands he was running and why he had spent so much time in the kitchen! He was mapping out preparing the 78 little votive candles that changed my life forever 🙂

Our Wedding

When we set out to pick our venue last October, we were aiming to have the wedding Labor Day weekend this year. We visited seven places (which I don’t recommend. Narrow to three and go from there), six of which were available that weekend. Of course the one we loved was the one NOT available that weekend. Our other choices for that venue were July, December and next spring. We knew July would be hot (and how right we were! It was 100+ degrees both of the dates we could pick) and we didn’t want to be engaged for two years, so December it was! Our venue is a historic mansion, but it currently serves as the headquarters for John’s fraternity. While this wasn’t why we picked it, it’s nice to incorporate where we met in our wedding.

Photo by Peter Jonathan

Yes, it’s a wedding in the winter. Yes, it’s a wedding in December. But, I don’t want the winter wonderland or Christmas themes. Instead, we will use a more classic color palette of black, ivory, champagne and SPARKLE! John’s proposal is really the inspiration for our decor, so there will be candles everywhere. Everywhere. Maybe even in the bathroom. I haven’t decided yet.

Photo from StyleMePretty

We have six bridesmaids, five groomsmen, two ushers, two flower girls, a ring bearer, and a partridge in a pear tree. No, actually there won’t be any birds or pear trees, but that list made me think of the Christmas carol. It will be a smaller group of about 120-140 of our friends and family (I have big family) and grand ole time!

Vendors like Storymix, Gigmasters, and the Man Registry, allow us to make our day that much more special and we are so thankful for them! These prizes have allowed us to fit video, a dj, and great groomsmen gifts into our budget. (And if anyone has any suggestions for what to write on chalkboard beer mugs, please put them in the comments! Or tweet me @ksnash14)

Follow me on Pinterest and Twitter for more wedding inspiration and contests! Let’s talk Pinterest and wedding planning soon!