Michelle and Kenny’s relationship started as a friendship and blossomed into a romance. Now, the two are planning their wedding. Michelle dishes about the proposal, how to stay sane during wedding planning, and reminds us what matters most: the marriage.
Give us the details! When? Where? How?
We had been talking about marriage lately, but were in no rush. I had mentioned previously that it was important to me to have my grandparents involved in the wedding somehow even though I knew they would not be able to fly out from Florida for medical reasons.
We had a trip planned to go visit them and then go to Miami for a few days afterwards. We had the best time with my grandparents and then left to go to South Beach. We made a couple stops along the way and then as soon as we got to our hotel Kenny wanted to go straight to the beach. I should have known that something was up because I asked if he wanted to eat first and he said no. He never says no to food!
So we walked to the beach and stopped in front of this really cool colorful lifeguard tower. He said we should take a picture, so we did. Then he pointed behind me and said “look at that” and like the gullible person I can be I turned around to look where he was pointing. I saw nothing out of the ordinary so I turned around to question him only to find him getting down onto one knee. To be completely honest I kind of blacked out. I remember being in total shock, crying, and interrupting the nice things he was saying to tell him “duh, yes!!” I also remember people on the beach cheering “Say yes!” and looking to my right to see some random guy taking photos of us and thinking “Who is that guy?”
Turns out my boyfriend who typically doesn’t plan anything until day of had a whole big elaborate plan for this. The ring he gave me was a family ring. I had completely dismissed the thought of him proposing on our trip because last time we saw my parents they still had the ring when we left. Apparently they flew the ring out to Florida when they went to go visit my grandparents a couple weeks before. Then when Kenny and I were visiting them when I got in the shower he went and talked to my grandparents and got their blessings along with the ring. He also reached out to the manager of the hotel we were staying at in South Beach to have one of the employees follow us to the beach and take pictures as the proposal was happening so we would have pictures to always remember the day (hence the guy to my right I was confused about). The hotel also upgraded our room and treated us like royalty the rest of our stay (Huge shout out to The Hall in South Beach for being amazing hosts during this exciting time!)
Besides me crying like a baby and forgetting most of the nice things he said because I was in such shock, it was absolutely perfect. We spent the rest of our trip being over the moon celebrating and spoiling ourselves. I will never forget it.
What has been your favorite experience planning the wedding?
Finding our venue was a struggle, but the experience with the venue we found has been great! They work with a lot of smaller local vendors who we can use or opt out and use our own. We have mostly stuck with their vendors and each interaction has been great. We just went to our “vendor day” at our venue and it was exhausting, but a wonderful experience. The caterer was flexible and almost was acting as a second wedding planner. Not to mention the food tasting was pretty awesome. Even our time with the florist was extremely enjoyable. I think working with small local businesses has really increased the quality of the planning experience. We don’t just feel like a dollar sign.
How do you stay sane under the pressures of wedding planning?
I keep reminding myself what it’s really all about – our marriage. If I start stressing over silly details for the party I tell myself, “The point of this is our marriage. Will this really matter in our marriage? No.”
At Joy we believe that even though a wedding lasts a day, joy should last forever. What does that mean to you?
