Wedding Tips and advice - The ultimiate guide to weddings

My FI and I are far from traditional. We have a 18 month son and live ‘as an old married couple’ anyway . Our proposal story consitsts simply of each of us realizing we were meant to be together. All the baggage, failed relationships and things that happened in our past brought us together. Helped us become the people we need to be to be ‘us’ (and ‘us’ is pretty great ). We have an amazing family. PS. If I win my son will be the one getting to use this beautiful piece as he’ll be our ring bearer (he’ll be older when we finally say ‘I do’)!

My fiance proposed to me at the restaurant where we went on our first official date. Over the years we’ve developed a nickname for each other, so now we always call eac other “Bib”. We met up after work one evening for dinner, and after dinner the waiter brought out a dessert with writing in chocolate that said “Te Quiero Bib”. I mmediately blushed, and after dinner my fiance said he had one more blush for me, and he went into a romantic and serious summary of how he got to this point with me and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I said yes of course! Our ring bearer will be our nephew, who will be 5 years old at our wedding.

I had been dating my now husband for about 6 years when I had to go to London for work for 2 months. Long hours, homesick, living in a shack of an apartment…I was miserable. We planned for him to come out to visit about a month into my trip. My great-grandmother is from Scotland, so we thought we would take a trip up there. To much surprise, he did most of the planning for this trip. I just assumed it was because he knew I was so busy. That Friday we took a train to Edinburgh. We slept in a decent side hotel room that night. Saturday morning we woke up early to take a train to see a castle. Right before we were about to leave, he goes “pack your stuff up”. I kept saying “why” and he said “it is a surprise…don’t keep asking me either”. We had a great day exploring Scotland! We got back to the hotel, hopped in a cab and drove for about 30 min. We were getting further and further away from the city. I had a feeling we were going to a castle. Finally, we pulled up to the most amazing castle – Dalhousie Castle. This beautiful wedding was just ending. I was so excited to see another castle, let alone stay the night in one. As he is checking in, I am still shocked just looking around. I looked over and there was a chapel and I joked that we should just get married. We walk up a few flights of stairs and walk into this amazing room. I see champagne and roses, which I thought were standard in each room. I start unpacking and am chatting up a storm. I turn around and he is on one knee and asked me to marry him. I was speechless (for once). After the shock wore off, I said “yes”.

I couldn’t asked for a better engagement. We just got married April 9th in the Dominican Republic

The Proposal

A “girl’s day out” had been in the making for awhile, so Grace didn’t suspect anything when she and the girls went to Pacifica on Memorial Day for brunch & manicures. Since they were going to pass by Grace’s favorite beach on the way back, they decided to stop by before going home. As they pulled up to Montara Beach in Half Moon Bay, Grace was confused when she saw Eric’s car parked in the parking lot, but then saw Eric approach the car with a bouquet of her favorite flowers. The girls left Grace with Eric then drove off. Eric brought Grace down to their favorite spot on the beach where he had a picnic blanket set up and music playing. Eric gave Grace a love letter to read, then went down on one knee and asked her to marry him. She responded with “Of course!” then they waltzed on the beach. After hanging out at the beach, they headed over to Sam’s Chowder House where many of their friends were waiting to celebrate with them.

We’ll be taking engagement photos at the beach that holds many memories for us: outings as friends, first date, subsequent dates, the proposal. We will be getting married on July 8th, 2011 at a winery in Pleasanton, CA.

Every year we go to Long Beach, Washington for my family reunion. Little did I know that a beach trip would forever change my life. Weeks before, Ryan my fiance, had asked my mom’s permission to marry me. Of course the news spread to all of my aunts and the planning begun. My mom and her sister went down early to find the perfect location.
When the day came Ryan asked if I wanted to go to the beach once last time. We began walking and I said “how cute, someone is being romantic.” (There sitting on the beach were two chairs and champagne). He said, “Those are ours.” Me being clueless said “we didn’t bring chairs.” We started to walk to the ocean and he got down on one knee. I still had no idea what he was doing until I saw him pull out the ring from his pocket. Of course I said “yes!”
As I turned around, out jumped my family from the tall grass. They were watching the whole thing! I have a photo from that moment that I will treasure forever. It is sweet to know that Ryan got my family involved since they are a big part of my life.

My fiance is a wedding photographer who is often hired by would-be grooms to shoot their proposals, paparazzi style. We’re very open in our relationship, so I sort of knew that he intended to propose at some point. But I didn’t know how, when or where. We live in New York City and we love to take advantage of some of the great restaurants here. For my 30th birthday, my fiance said he wanted to take me to a fabulous restaurant near Time’s Square. He asked me to meet him in Time’s Square, right by this grandstand that was installed a few years ago, which lights up at night. Well, little did we know, there was a Gospel Choir concert taking place in Time’s Square. I met him at the stairs and he said to me, “I think you need to call your Mom.” Worried, I asked “Why?” and he said “Because I’m asking you to marry me!” With that, he got one one knee and told me he loved me and asked if I would be his bride. As soon as I said yes, as if on cue, the Gospel Choir started singing Hallelujah! To add to the celebration — my fiance had a photographer hidden amongst the crowd who photographed the entire thing! Of course, I immediately called my mother!

My fiance and I took a trip to the Santa Ynez Valley to do some winetasting. At the 2nd winery we visited, which was a very small winery, we finished our tasting and decided to set up our picnic. By that time, the winery was empty and we set up our picnic on the grass. I said, “we should take a picture!” so I got up and put my camera on our cooler and set the timer. I ran back to our picnic blanket and my fiance was standing up. I said to him “Sit down, we only have 10 seconds!” while pointing to the camera. At that moment he got down on one knee and said “This day has been perfect….the only way it would be better is if you would marry me.” I of course, said yes and cried tears of happiness. The camera actually did go off right as he started to go down on his knee, so I have a picture of me kinda looking mad and pointing at the camera with him about to propose.

My fiance proposed to me on Thanksgiving after a hectic day of running to all the different family gatherings. He waited all day long through an unexpected drive to LAX airport to drop off my mom. Then on our way to the proposal spot, we got in a car accident (not his fault!). Everything went wrong that day, but he didnt let that stop his plans. Finally, we changed cars, he took me up to the mountains with a beautiful view of the city lights below, where we spent our first date and first kiss. He proposed right there under the stars, it was beautiful. I couldn’t say no!

Vince and I met 5 years ago, dating other people, when we both became single, I didn’t wait! I told him we should go out, we had a spark right away and I couldn’t stay away…we have been together for 5 years recently we purchased a new home. On 2.20.10 we were ready to show it of to all of our friends and family! Through out the day Vince had been picking on me telling me that I burned food and that I was doing everything wrong…..he was going to get it! The party went off without a hitch, the drinks were flowing people were laughing…..I was pouring a drink for 1 of my friends, and I hear “Hey guys, I have to ask Nichole a question….” I decided it was probably going to talk about my mad cooking skills again so I ignored him…it got really quiet, I turned around and there he was on his knee with a big smile on his face and 50 people around watching… “Nichole, will you marry me?”…..The hot flash came over me, smiling back I said “YES!!!” Such a special moment in our new home…that special spot I walk past every day!

I had the day off Friday. Our roommate had been gone all week visiting his boyfriend and family, so we had the apartment to ourselves. I had planned to go to happy hour with my law school girlfriends Friday night at 5, so Steve and I planned dinner for afterward. We said we’d decide where to go randomly once we got together. Steve went to work that morning, and I got up and went to yoga. After yoga I texted Steve and was like, I want a mani/pedi… and he didn’t put up a fight! He told me to go get my nails done. So I come back from the mani/pedi and get all dressed up for happy hour. Four other girls and I went downtown and had a wonderful time catching up.

After happy hour, Steve picked me up in his car at 7pm (he never, ever drives downtown if he doesn’t have to) and said, “Don’t worry about dinner, I’ve got that all taken care of. We have an activity to do before dinner, and it’s something you’ve never done before.” So we drove across the Smithfield Bridge downtown and across to Station Square… after which we got one of the Pittsburgh Inclines – the Monongahela Incline, to be exact. It’s a trolley that goes up the side of the mountain surrounding Pittsburgh (called Mount Washington) that allows you to see the entire city. Here’s a couple websites to show what it is – Exhibit A:

http://pittsburgh.about.com/od/things_to_do/p/mon_incline.htm
http://smallpresspittsburgh.wikispaces.com/Attractions+in+Pittsburgh – the view from the trolley

So by the time we got up there it was sunset, and the city was beautiful. We watched the light hit the water… two of my favorite things, sunset and water combined! Exhibit B (wasn’t quite this, but similar):
http://bldn333.deviantart.com/art/Pittsburgh-Sunset-Skyline-II-176492256?q=boost%3Apopular+in%3Aphotography%2Fcivilization%2Fcityscape+max_age%3A8h&qo=22

There’s a paved sidewalk with lots of overlooks up there, and we walked around for a while. Then he found a spot that had no one nearby and started his speech. I started bawling. He got down on one knee, opened the box and asked me! Of course I said yes… after a little prodding to remember how to speak.

Afterward, we walked around Mt. Washington for a little while, and then eventually went back down the Incline. He let me know we actually did have dinner plans, and we went to a restaurant called Eleven at 8:30. Eleven is absolutely one of the best restaurants in Pittsburgh. We went and did the Chef’s Tasting Menu with the wine pairing. Exhibit C:
http://bigburrito.com/eleven/eleven.shtml

It was one of the most fabulous dinners we’ve ever had – hands down. We arrived at the restaurant and Steve said he had reservations. There were four people at the wait stand, and they all looked at the computer, then looked at my hand. Hilarious! They lead us upstairs to a private table which was suspended above the rest of the restaurant. The table was surrounded by a curtain that we could draw, and it was incredibly quiet, private and romantic. Everyone who delivered food to us said congratulations. The last course was a peach cobbler, and they wrote congratulations on the plate! Truly a wonderful dinner experience.

The girls who I went to happy hour with met up with their boyfriends after we were done there and went out… but they made sure they were in our apartment building when we returned! One of the girls has an apartment in my building, too, and they thought something was up, so they waited us out. We went to visit them right when we got back, had champagne and visited for 10-15 minutes or so.

Then Steve took me back down to our apartment where he had a bottle of champagne and roses waiting for us to finish celebrating the evening. It turns out we were too exhausted at that point to enjoy it, so we decided to wait until the next night to have it and celebrate again!!

we met and after 6 months broke it off.. we finally desided to get sober together and went to aa. well on our third year sobriety birthday and a new son together he handed me a card and said my thought ofyou and “our acomlishments together!!! when i opened it the whole crowed at out meeting in since said “sara will be forever sober with this man dennis” awww omg i cried first off he isnt a romantica and how he planned it all out!! we cant afford a nice ring but the one i have means so much i would love this as a token