If you were on Facebook at all today, you might have noticed one of two things. One… there’s a very different kind of picture of Justin and me floating around… and two… it’s also April Fool’s Day. So we might be joking, right? But I’m in a WEDDING DRESS!! And Justin’s in a suit and I’m holding a gorgeous ivory and vine bouquet and wearing a flower crown!!! So the majority of you are probably pretty confused and asking yourselves… what in the world is going on?!?!
Well here are a few answers to some of the questions I’ve been getting recently (and some for quite a few years now)! When writing this, I felt obligated to say “I’m not writing this post because I feel like I owe everyone all the answers,” but if I’m being honest… I kind of genuinely DO feel like I owe you guys some answers!! In this day and age of social networking, it’s so easy to become emotionally invested in someone else’s life and deeply care about them even if you rarely see them or don’t even know them in “real” life at all!! For instance… I LOVE Katelyn James and her husband Michael like they’re close friends, even though I’ve only met them once! By following Katelyn’s blog for the past 3 years, I feel like I’ve come to know her so personally! Her joys are my joys and her sorrows are my sorrows. It’s a beautiful thing how friendship has evolved with technology!! I can tell from the influx of texts and Facebook messages I got today that there might be a few people who care about Justin and me in a similar way ♥ So here are a few of your most common questions answered!
“Did you guys get MARRIED?!?!? If not, how the heck did you pull this prank off?!”
I am SO sorry to everyone who shed happy tears today… but we are NOT really married! Last month Justin and I got to model as a bride and groom for a styled shoot hosted by Brandilynn of Brandilynn Aines Photography! A styled shoot is an event where local wedding industry vendors get together and plan a “wedding” as a team to show off all their talents! Florist, wedding planner, photographer, venue, bridal boutique… they were all in! Justin and I were SO excited about getting to dress up, have some awesome pictures taken of us, and perhaps best of all… EAT CAKE!!! All of the vendors kept saying how awesome Justin was with everything and how he was such a good sport about having to be a groom for a day. I really don’t think he thought anything of it… we had been looking forward to this for months and after 4 years of being together, it was kinda fun to just play pretend for a couple hours… and I think it just made us that much more excited for our real wedding day!
“So when ARE you going to get married?!”
Obviously we don’t have a date set yet… we’re not even officially ENGAGED yet!! We do know that with every passing day our wedding gets that much closer. We have never truly considered getting marriage while still in college, so finishing up school first is really important to the both of us. I’ll graduate this December with my BS in Business and Justin will graduate in December of 2015 with a double major in Business and Information Systems Operations Management. And then… who knows what the future holds!!! Clearly a wedding can only follow an engagement… so that’s instead what you should be excited for next ;)
“I better be invited to the wedding!!!”
Oh man… trust me when I say this. We want EVERYONE to be there at our wedding to celebrate with us!!! One of the disadvantages of having known each other for so long and dating for several years is having SO many people that have known us, loved us, supported us, and been invested in us as a couple for a WHILE!! And we genuinely love you all so much! We often talk about our friends, our mentors, and the people that have liked our pictures, commented when we share exciting news, prayed with us, prayed FOR us, double dated with us, hung out with us, went on vacation with us…. we are sooo, so blessed to have so many people that love and support us. It’s for this reason that we’ve even jokingly (but maybe a little bit seriously) talked about having an “open” ceremony that ALL of our friends can come to. But that’s generally seen as pretty tacky. So, I don’t know. Whenever we start talking logistics I have to stop and remind myself that we’re not even engaged yet!!! And that we really can’t ever know what God’s plan is for us until the moment arrives! So we have LOTS of time to get all the details squared away. What we do know is that we are going to try our best to include the most people that we can in some way! Being a young couple fresh out of college just makes things a little trickier… :)
“Where’s the rest of the “wedding” pictures?”
Be sure to check out Brandilynn Aines Photography on Facebook and “like” her page! She’ll be sharing the rest of her Gold Inspired Nautical Styled Shoot soon!!! And the pictures are AMAZING, people… I just might have one printed on a canvas to put on my wall at home!! But that would be weird right??? ;) After already seeing each other as a bride and groom before our wedding day and then sharing it with everyone else, too…. I think our “weirdness” radar has flown right out the window and we’re hopelessly doomed to be the one couple that does everything in a different, completely backwards way. Oh well… at least we know at the end of the day we’ve got people who will love us no matter how weird we are or how many pranks we pull on them ;)
Speaking of pranks… here’s a few of my favorite reactions from today…
“Congrats on your marriage?”
Because I’ll be spending this weekend at the DELIGHT! retreat with some amazing fellow young women in the creative industry, Erin was pretty suspicious…
This one made me feel bad!!! She would have been so sad that she had to find out through Facebook… love you Amy & Richie!
Instagram followers were quite concerned. “Isn’t that you?” Haha. My favorite.
Justin’s mom had a field day in the comments section of Justin’s picture…
Sara & Alex just pulled my heartstrings!!! I felt terrrrible! They’ve both been two amazing women to look up to through this era of my life and have been so encouraging and lovely! Alex, so sweet that you teared up!!! Save those tears for just a little while more! ♥
This. Was. THE BEST. I could just hear Jasmin’s famous cackle in my mind as I was reading her texts!!! Hahaha…
Oh man… best April Fool’s Day ever. Thank you guys for being such good sports. I’m so sorry to everyone who might have gotten super excited or cried happy tears!! I hope you’re JUST as happy and excited for us when the day comes that I’m sharing our proposal story or talking wedding planning! For now please join us in this period of waiting… being patient… and trusting in God’s perfect timing!! We love you all. xoxo
AH! It will be SO amazing to read posts like this. I can’t wait to read more – I actually did sort of tear up. You both are closer than you think. :)
These pictures are going to screw up the family tree!
Oopsies ;)
you’ll be a beautiful bride! I can’t wait to see all the pictures at your real wedding. Pictures really do speak when there is so much emotion in them.
Good April fools joke though, I commend you!
I debated doing it… but Justin was ALL for it… he was so excited to see everyone’s reactions, haha. And I guess you can’t pass up this good of an opportunity when you get the chance!!
Haha there is me!
I said: Isn’t that you?
LOL.
You fooled me!
Lol that cracked me up!! I could just imagine you scrolling past and then having to take a second look like “wait a second….” lol ;)
I am so so glad I got to help in pulling this off, and I cannot thank you enough for modeling for me in this awesome shoot :) xoxoxoxo
We LOVE them!! We will seriously treasure these pictures for the rest of our lives!!! So much fun. Thank YOU!!