Julie and Paul met by complete happenstance at a marketing conference in San Francisco. Neither one of them had attended this conference before. Julie was actually trying to get out of going to the conference and Paul’s boss asked him at the last minute to go in his place—life is full of wonderful surprises when you least expect them!
Who made the first move? How?
Julie says…. “Paul made the first move by stalking and following me to the elevator during the conference kick-off happy hour.”
Paul says…. “Julie made the first move. All I asked, after learning she was spending Friday night in San Francisco post the Forrester event, was ‘Do you have plans for dinner on Friday night?’ She said ‘I don’t, but I do now.’ It took me almost a minute before I realized she just asked me out.”
Give us the details! When? Where? How?
I thought we were just getting away from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan for the weekend. We were heading out for brunch. Now, I want to know where we are heading, the name, how many stars they have received, their reviews, etc. Paul? He just likes to walk and wing it. And that’s exactly what I thought was happening as we stepped out of our Uber ride. Paul has this one favorite place on the, “Points of Light Memorial, The Extra Mile” square.
Yes. Definitely yes.
Now, we have been coming to this spot many times over the past two years and I didn’t want to stop to take yet another picture of our shoes, I was hungry. So, I started for lack of a better term whining about having to stop at the square, saying,”Paul please, I don’t want to take another picture, these are the same shoes as last time, can we just go eat? And why are we here? In the meantime, Paul had knelt down on one knee pretending to tie his shoe. When I asked my final question, “And why are we here?” he looked up with a beautiful ring in his hand and said, “Because I want you to go the extra mile with me and marry me.”
Sharing this very special moment of our lives with our friends and family is going to fill us with joy.
OMG….I couldn’t even speak! I was so surprised. We had talked about getting married but I had no idea it was going to happen that month, that weekend, that day. Before he could even take it out of the box and say, “Will you marry me?”, I had snatched the ring out of its box and had put it on my finger. A woman standing by said, “I think that is a yes.” Yes. Definitely yes.
What has been your favorite experience planning the wedding?
Drinking Champagne. Champagne makes everything better.
How do you stay sane under the pressures of planning the wedding?
Drinking Champagne, lol. No, actually, I carried around a notebook and a planner. Ever little thing I needed to do or get was written down in my notebook. There were way too many large and small details to keep track of in my brain. I also set aside specific times of the week dedicated to plowing through and knocking off things on my to-do list.
Champagne makes everything better.
I found early on that too much time on Pinterest, Instagram, etc. made my head spin a little, no a lot. Started out with one idea, then liked another: “You spin me round, round, round, round, round like a rocket baby!” Almost before I knew it, I had been liking and saving images for 3-4 hours! Crazy.
What is your favorite part of using Joy for your wedding?
Number one is that is free, followed by the app, the ability to customize colors to fit our wedding colors, I could go on but you get the picture (no pun intended).
What piece of advice would you give couples to ensure that they use Joy to its fullest potential?
Go ahead and create your website for your save the date notifications, but don’t give out your password until you have the complete vision and details worked out between you and your vendors. For example, the venue, timelines, menu, hotel blocks, travel instructions, questions you anticipate your guests will ask, etc. All of this information you can easily provide on the site thus eliminating the need for you and your fiance to be inundated with an onslaught of questions after you send out your invitations. The more you plan the better prepared you will be to enjoy your day.
At Joy we believe that even though a wedding lasts a day, joy lasts forever. What does that mean to you?
We’re getting married in Sedona. About 95% of our guests will be flying in from around the country so a lot of planning has gone into making sure everyone has a really good time. Sharing this very special moment of our lives with our friends and family is going to fill us with joy. The day will come and go just like that—the memories from this one day, of the joy we felt at becoming man and wife, laughing and dancing with our friends and family. But the joy will last forever.
