Beveling Bride

 Hi friends! It has been way too long. I hope everyone is staying healthy and safe. My heart breaks for the world right now. I'm grateful that we had something positive happen during this time. We are ENGAGED!! I can't wait to spend my life with my forever dance partner. He makes me excited for a future filled with adventure, love, and happiness. My heart goes out to all of the brides who had to postpone or cancel their weddings. I was nervous about wedding planning with all of the uncertainty, but we need something to look forward to. I have booked a lot for ours already. It was definitely stressful trying to make the right choices. I think DJ was the hardest part, because that really sets the tone for the entire day! We still have over a year to go, but it will be nice to put focus on having fun and the little details now. 

It's a weird thing not knowing the next time you'll be onstage (or back to work) again. We spend so much time training with particular goals in mind. Most of those have disappeared without return dates. I think that with any future opportunity to perform I will appreciate it so much more and take in the moment as much as possible. Prior to 2019, I was a gypsy soul, living out of a suitcase and moving on when things got too comfortable. After moving to Florida and meeting my love, I don't feel like I'm giving up on my dreams by being in one place. He lifts me up and supports my goals and we are creating our own. I am so excited to see what is in store for us and what we will work hard to achieve together. He has a long road ahead of him still with school, but I think our wedding falls at the perfect time. It will be during his last year of classes, before the craziness of prepping to take the bar and starting a new job. 

We got engaged in June on the most perfect beach day. It was our first beach day since Covid began. It was just the two of us, swimming and having fun. We decided to play the question game (my fav) and I said we should have another beer (obvi). He said he had something better and reached into the cooler. I thought he meant some other drink. He started saying all of these sweet things and that he had one more question. Before I knew it, he was on one knee in the sand with the shiniest ring : ) He asked me to marry him and of course I said yes! (Actually I said of course...haha) Then we had some champagne before celebrating with our parents. 

I was quick to get started with planning with it being a destination wedding for most, the uncertainty of the pandemic, and my love going back to school. In the last two months, I've gotten most of the big parts of planning out of the way (venue, engagement shoot, save the dates, room blocks, photography, videography, catering, cake, asking bridesmaids, website, and music!) I have performed at many events and have loved experiencing this side of them and seeing my vision start to come together. We were able to do our cake tasting at home and had so much fun with that. We tried 3 amazing flavors and are having a great local bakery recreate my Pinterest dream cake. We will likely do our menu tasting when this semester ends. 

I hope a lot of our friends and family will be able to attend. As a performer, you make amazing friends with every contract, but they live all over the world. I understand how difficult it is to commit to something like this when a contract could pop up at any time. I've missed weddings, school dances, funerals, etc. for work. The vibe I hope to achieve for our day is romantic and warm. I want to be surrounded by our closest family and friends and have so much fun. I'm looking forward to incorporating my dance life a little bit with custom La Duca's (fingers crossed) and a first dance choreographed by me. 

The following pics are from our engagement shoot. Whitney Coogan is a wonderful local photographer who does an amazing job of creating a romantic, fairy-tale dream world with her work. I knew she was the right photographer for the vision we were going for and I can't wait to put some of these on canvas.