Wedding Date on May 3, 2019

Jason and I met in the way so many millenials do - online! Jason had just created his account on match.com whereas I had been on match for almost 2 years with 2 epic failed relationships and no desire to try online dating again. I was convinced I could meet someone the "old fashioned" way. I was just moments away from closing my account with match.com and I saw I had a message from this guy. He looked cute and struck up a normal conversation (as opposed ot he ones that wrote a full novel as their first message and sort of just creeped you out from the beginning). I thought, "what the heck, I'll give this guy a shot - I literally have nothing left to lose". We went on our first date to Buaffalo Wild Wings to watch the game between the Patriots (my team) and the Redskins (his team). I had gotten there pretty early and decided to wait in the car a bit longer before waiting for him out front. As I was sitting there, I saw him walk past my car and wait out front for me. I was instantly more nervous than I had ever been in my life - he was so much cuter in person and I was literally already tongue tied. I was so nervous I almost left! Looking back on it, it's like deep down, I knew this was it! Jason proposed on a trip to Ireland at the top of the Kerry Cliffs - with no one around...just us. I cried so hard that he couldn't even finish everything he planned to say and silly me, I wore mascara that wasn't water proof. In all of the photos of us from the day we got engaged, I looked like a raccoon! But I truly wouldn't want it any other way. When it came to planning the wedding, I jumped right in! I worked as an event planner and had been in the business for about 5 years. and was ready to get down and dirty into the wedding planning. We wanted a place that we could have all our friends and family from near and far gather in one place and not having to worry about getting home or going to one place for the ceremony and then another place for the reception. We found the perfect place at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay. We weren't big on the idea of an outdoor wedding - too many variables with weather but all that changed the second we set foot on property. We were blown away by the incredibly waterfront views. While we didn't say it right away, we both knew that it was THE place for us. We kept our wedding party small - just very close friends and family with a total of 110 guests. We wanted to make sure the entire wedding reflected who we were as a couple - the most important of that being the ceremony. We wanted it to be personalized to us and we got just that by asking our close friend, Craig, to officiate (his wife also served as my Matron of Honor). He created a service that was meaningful, religious enough and quite perfectly, just us. We opted to say our "I Do's" but also write our own vows to each other in which Jason shared the speech he wrote when he asked my parents for their blessing. Tears were shed by both of us (more by him, surprisingly). Our Best Man cried his way not just through the ceremony, but his speech as well. While my Matron of Honor spoke kinds words about us both and ended with her own version of "I Want it That Way" by the Backstreet Boys because she knew my love for them ran deeper than anything. My dad and I shocked the crowd with a surprise dance performance mashup that included "Single Ladies" and ended with the guests bombarding the dance floor that stayed packed the whole night. We wrapped it up with a sparkler send off and have been dreaming of our perfect wedding day ever since.