Surprise Firefighter Proposal & Real Rustic Wedding

Jennifer might be the luckiest bride of all time. Not only did her awesome fiance ask her to marry him in front of the whole fire department, she also got to include his proposal and her surprise in her WeddingMix wedding video!

What followed was a whirlwind of DIY projects, help from family and friends, and the pre-wedding mishaps. Nevertheless, Jennifer and James’ beautiful rustic wedding in Oklahoma City was capture by their family and friends. Check out the couples wedding trailer video for a quick look at their amazing engagement and wedding day!

Photo via Blue Elephant Photography

My husband and I met at Cowboys, a bar in Oklahoma City. The bar has live bull riding, and he used to go there every Friday and Saturday to ride bulls! I had some friends in town one Friday night, so we ended up going to Cowboys for the night. Before the bull riding started, I saw this guy wearing a hot pink shirt kneeling down to pray in the middle of the arena. After his ride (where he got a great score!) I kept an eye on him. My friend (and eventual maid of honor) convinced me to go say hi. I was awkward and self-conscious, but he ended up asking me to dance and hasn’t left my side since! He swears it was love at first sight 🙂

He didn’t propose until 6 months into our relationship, but he told me he wanted to marry me after only one week! In fact, he started looking at rings less than a month after we met. So obviously, I knew it was coming. I just didn’t know how he would do it. He had a few different ideas, but ended up proposing in the middle of a banquet with his fire department. The fire chief called us on stage, and James got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I said yes, of course! He dropped the ring trying to put it on my finger, which made everyone laugh.

Our wedding had a lot of DIY projects like shotgun shell boutonnieres and individual silverware bundles for guests, not to mention doing all our own flowers and baking cookies for the favors! I did a ton of planning and work before the wedding, but honestly I could not have done it without help. My mom sewed the pew cones that held lavender, my matron of honor helped me make the twine ball decorations, and a whole army helped us haul everything to and from the reception site. Other than actually marrying James, that was one of my favorite parts of the weekend: realizing how many people loved us and were willing to help us make it happen! It was also part of why using WeddingMix worked so well. We tasked a few people with videoing the important parts, and they definitely followed through!

Our wedding was imperfectly perfect. In the days leading up to the wedding, it seemed that everything that could go wrong, did. My dress needed last minute alterations, the weather forecast called for severe weather (in Oklahoma, that means tornadoes), flowers were delayed, packages were misdelivered, family and friends hospitalized…it was really everything and the kitchen sink, which started leaking two days before the wedding. But when I finally walked down that aisle (after missing my entrance cue because nobody came to get my dad and me!) it didn’t matter. James was waiting for me, and we had a beautiful traditional Episcopal ceremony. Afterwards we all drove down to the reception site for BBQ, drinks, and dancing. The severe weather never came – though we did endure 30 MPH winds all night – and everyone ended up having a blast!