Welcome to Our Wedding Website
Hello Family and Friends!
Thank you for visiting, we hope that you'll find all the information you need about our wedding here. Please come back often, as we will be adding new details regularly.
We look forward to seeing you on December 28th.
Love,
Laura & Jon
His Story
Laura and I got engaged in Nashville, TN on December 15, 2012. We had planned a weekend get away since both of us had been extremely busy for most of the summer and fall with work and school for Laura. Laura had never been to Nashville, and I hadn't been there since high school when our choir performed at Opry Land (yeah, I was horrible at singing back then, too, so I have no clue how or why I went) so we were both looking forward to getting away and seeing what the city had to offer. Little did Laura know that I had actually been planning this weekend for quite some time and was going to ask her to marry me.
Upon arriving in Nashville, we checked into our suite at the Aloft Nashville West End Hotel. Our first day was pretty typical, we lounged around the hotel, walked around the city and took in the sights and basically just relaxed. The next day, however, was the big day I had been planning for, so it was show time. In the weeks leading up to our trip I had worked closely with the hotel staff in making sure everything was just right - I had fresh rose petals and candles delivered to the hotel, (unfortunately, the candles didn't arrive until the day we checked out - thanks, FedEx!) and asked them to have champagne on ice in the room. Since we were going out for the morning / afternoon, I asked the hotel staff to have everything ready by 4pm.
As we left in the morning, I remember feeling extremely nervous - I was basically counting down every hour / second until I was taking the big leap. After walking around for a while, we hit up one of the local cowboy boot stores, where we found some awesome boots for my niece and nephew and Laura's cousins. Once we were done shopping, we decided to stop at a bar for a few drinks and to listen to the live band that was playing. As before, I was pretty much glued to my watch at this point. Suddenly, it started pouring, and I got nervous that our schedule could be thrown off. Since it was raining, we decided to stay longer than expected - but we still had time. Laura had found a fried chicken place called Hattie B's that she wanted to try (for the record, Laura doesn't like fried food and I love it - so you can see why this was ironic), so our plan was to go there for lunch. Once the rain let up, it was well past lunchtime and we were starving. We decided to make the trip towards the hotel and the chicken joint, which were right by each other; I told her I wanted to stop at the hotel first to drop off the cowboy boots, but Laura didn't understand why we couldn't just bring them with us. Of course, a small argument followed since I refused to give in on this. I knew it was game time and didn't want our room to burn down because of the candles (I was unaware that they hadn't arrived at this point). After arguing for most of the walk back, Laura finally gave in and agreed to go back to the hotel first- she wasn't happy, though!
When we walked into the hotel room, Laura had thought the room was vandalized and couldn't tell what was on the floor - as she got a better look, she noticed they were rose petals and thought the hotel staff just did it since we were using loyalty points and were just being nice (pictures above). I played along with this, of course, so she was really confused. Once she turned around, I took a big gulp and got down on one knee. I began to tell her how much I loved her and wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. The rest is kind of a blur, though - she told me to stand up and said yes. I'm man enough to admit I shed a few tears after all was said and done - it was an exhausting experience. Laura, however, was as cool as a cucumber - except she later admitted she was uncontrollably sweating. We popped the champagne and began calling our families to share the good news and the rest is pretty much history!
Her Story
Since Jon had a bunch of leftover hotel points from the months he spent in San Francisco for work, we decided we should use them to go on a weekend getaway. I had never been to Nashville, and I decided it would be a good place to unwind during winter break. We planned to leave on December 14, 2012, the day after my finals ended for fall quarter. It was a tough quarter, and my final on Thursday night was unusually hard, so I was super grumpy as we left for our trip. In a post-finals funk, I mentioned to Jon that I didn't even want to go on the trip because I didn't think I'd be any fun. He assured me that we'd have a great time.
Luckily, I pulled myself together, and we had a fun Friday in Nashville, visiting various restaurants and bars. I had too much wine at dinner and accidentally left my credit card at the restaurant (oops). On Saturday, we spent the afternoon wandering around downtown, shopping, and not really eating much (this will be important later). We stopped in a bar for a while to watch a band and drink a few beers. We only expected to stay for a short while and then pick up my credit card and grab lunch near the hotel. Mother Nature had other plans in store, and it started raining pretty heavily. Neither of us had umbrellas, so we were stranded.
When the rain finally let up, we picked up my credit card and started heading back to eat lunch. By then, I was famished. Jon mentioned that we should go back to the hotel before we go to lunch. It was almost 4 pm at this point, and I began to get "hangry" (hungry/angry). He explained that he wanted to drop off our shopping bags because he didn't want to carry them anymore. This made me even more annoyed, since we had a grand total of ONE bag, and he insisted we had to go back to the hotel instead of letting me carry it.
Suddenly, he decided he needed to go to the bathroom, and he suggested that we go to a bar on the way back to the hotel. He also decided we should eat at the bar. My rage was reaching full steam at this point, since I had spent quite a while researching good restaurants to visit on our trip, and this divey bar was definitely not one of them. I pouted as he ordered an extremely mediocre spinach and artichoke dip. Jon sat there, not paying any attention to the (admittedly rather exciting) college basketball game on TV. Butler was about to beat an undefeated IU (a team that Jon hates), and he had absolutely no reaction. I didn't really understand what was happening. We left the bar and walked back to the hotel. I was livid; I planned to grab my kindle and find a place to read alone in the lobby so I could be alone.
We opened the door to the hotel room, and I could see that something was off. There were dark blobs all over the floor. My first reaction was that someone had gone through all of our suitcases and had thrown everything all over the floor (I have some vision problems in dark rooms). As I walked into the room, I realized the dark blobs were rose petals. A bottle of champagne was situated on the desk. I wondered aloud why the hotel would decorate our room and give us champagne. Jon acted confused at first, but then he clarified that he had asked them to do this, and he asked me to marry him. As it turns out, he had been trying to make sure we got to the hotel just after 4pm. The room was supposed to be decorated with candles, and he didn't want our room to start on fire if we took too long. We ended up being a little bit early, so he stalled at the second bar. The candles actually didn't even arrive on time, so there was nothing to worry about. Anyway, I felt like a huge jerk for pouting about not being able to go to the hipster fried chicken place for lunch! Also, in a cruel twist of fate, when we did eat the fried chicken the next day, I ended up with food poisoning.
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