Photos by Vivian Chen Photography
The Glö-Couple (tell us a fun fact about each of you):
Melanie, Paramedic, six-foot-six on the inside five foot nothing on the outside and
Tommy, Paramedic, Melanie’s EMT teacher
Celebration Date & Location:
April 2014
Pinole, CA, USA
Tell us how you got engaged:
Working in emergency services we see a lot of families tragically pulled apart and realized if we weren’t married there would be no protection for the other if the worst happened.
We needed to get married for all of the legal aspects that being married provide (which was a long running joke throughout our engagement, yay tax breaks,) but also because we didn’t want there to be any questions about our commitment to each other.
He was my EMT teacher when we first met, both in unhappy relationships. I began working at the same company as him about a year later and we became really good friends and partners. We “rescued” each other from the smoking remains of our relationships and realized we had really strong feelings for each other.
Our relationship has survived his official divorce, his being every red flag in the book to my parents, me going to medic school, three moves, getting a puppy, two job changes, one car explosion, buying a house, and me learning how to be a step-parent. We’ve done more pre-married than most folks do to each other after marriage, and we are a thousand times stronger for it. In the face of all that, our wedding was *cake*.
What’s the overall ‘feeling’ you’re aiming for with your celebration:
We wanted a super intimate, backyard, relaxed fun family atmosphere. The kids are a huge part of our family’s story and having the wedding in my childhood home really brought it all full circle.
We got the super relaxed family wedding by doing as much of the planning together as possible. My parents lovingly tended the purple and white pansies and kept the deer from eating them, my fiance and I made my bouquet forty five before the ceremony, the kid fell and scraped her knees an hour before the ceremony and the grandmas tag-teamed getting her cleaned and bandaged. We greeted each guest as they walked in up to the moment I was shooed upstairs to get dressed.
Important : everyone feeling like they contributed something to the wedding and having a good time day-of, tasty snackable food, good champagne, tabletop decorations that were multipurpose and helped tell our story, personalized vows that weren’t too cheesy, an amazing photographer.
Unimportant : fancy chairs, a DJ or band (yay iPod DJ Dad), a “signature” cocktail, a videographer, too many cheesy-pinterest-DIY projects.
Are you adding any fun twists on tradition:
We wrote our vows based on the love-honor-and obey model, but twisted each to better fit us. We drank *a lot* of tequila to use the tops as bases for our centerpieces. We went to our favorite beach to get beach rocks and filled each base, topped with a succulent, tied a pretty bow in our wedding color around the neck and used it as a centerpiece/tablecloth holder/wedding favor. They were gorgeous.
What was the inspiration for your Glövite and Glösite design? If you made them yourself, tell us how you did it.
Purple and rocks was our “theme” at the beginning, it morphed into purple and rocks and flowers somewhere near the end with the Glosite design really helping to bring all the “paper” aspects together. The paperless invite matched the paper invite matches the thank you notes. It all added up to be a really pretty theme.
Any good planning tips and tricks for the couples who are just starting to plan?
Double check your font color, what was a really pretty purple up close was really hard for some of my family to read on their computer screens, in retrospect, hard for us to read too.
If you’re still planning: What are you looking forward to the most about your celebration? If you’ve already celebrated: What is your favorite moment or memory?
Favorite moment was standing in a circle after the ceremony with our champagne and everyone giving their toast.
What’s the biggest “say what?” moment or funny story that’s happened since you started planning?
I forgot to say “yes” when he proposed initially.
Who are the magical partners who helped bring your celebration to life?
Dress : Maggie Sottero Myra ;
Suit : Tommy Hilfiger
Shoes : Converse all stars
Hair piece : Tiger Lily
Cake : Oakland Bakes ;
Photographer : Vivian Chen Photography
Flowers : Blooms by the Box and DIT
Snacks : Luckys deli counter
Drinks : Costco
1 Comment
Awesome :)