I am a planner and I wanted to be prepared for the day I got engaged so I could set a date and book things pretty quickly. Me and Michael have been together for about 6 years now so a long engagement is unnecessary for us. Without a doubt in my mind I knew I wanted to get married at Historic 1625 in Tacoma WA. I'm not unrealistic of the fact I don't have $50,000 to plan a wedding. I love how beautiful Historic is, its local, not super expensive and I don't know a million people who have gotten married there. They were having a open house in February with different vendors, so naturally I RSVP'd to the event. I knew they were doing a bunch of drawings for catering gift certificates and other things but the main raffle was winning a free venue date in 2016. Me and Michael talked about what we would do if we won a date and we both agreed we would look at their calendar and book a date regardless of winning. Getting married wasn't a question, the formal proposal just hadn't happened yet.
We got to the event, tried some food, talked to vendors and checked out their available dates. I was SO upset to find out they had no Saturdays available in 2016 and the next Saturday was in February 2017. Me my mom and Michael talked about it and decided to book the February date because apparently they book up quickly! We kind of just waited around for the rest of the raffles and of course the main raffle which was a free date in 2016. Never in a million years did I think my name was going to get called...BUT it did! I WON! I won the free wedding venue in 2016....about a $4000 value and I could not believe it! Neither could Michael or my mom. We were hugging each other and couldn't stop smiling, that kind of stuff doesn't happen...but it did to me that night!
We immediately went and sat down with the owner and had to sign a contract and pick a date. This was the tough part...I was working with no available Saturdays. I was pro Friday and Michael and my mom were pro Sunday. we weighed the pros and cons and ultimately decided on a Sunday Winter wedding.
I had already gone ring shopping and picked out "the one" and just had to wait for Michael to propose...which took about a month. It was simple and perfect and just in our home. I think people are a little disappointed to hear we don't have an elaborate engagement story but I'm not. I like that our story is nontraditional and I can't even begin to describe to you how excited we were that night we won the venue. we were in disbelief and pure joy for the next few days. I almost feel like that was our engagement.
SO in about 7 short months I will Marry Michael on 12.04.16. I couldn't be more excited!
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