1. How did you two meet or what was the proposal like? : Julie and Joel first met in late November of 2016. Julie was out with her friends, and Joel was out with his friends at the country bar called "Whiskey Row" in Scottsdale, Arizona. Joel first caught Julie's attention by the big smile and freestyle attitude she exuded on the dance floor. Joel first approached Julie, and the first thing Julie said to Joel was, "wow, your so tall! I've never met a man as tall as me!" Joel followed up, asking Julie to do the two-step country dance with him. Julie commented back, saying, "the only two-step dance I know how to do is the hip hop two-step by the rapper Dj Unk." Julie's funny and goofy nature charmed Joel, and the two ended the night exchanging numbers. Joel attentively followed up with text messages to Julie in the following days. Still, Julie cautiously held back, skeptical, thinking that nothing would come of meeting a guy at a bar. Unfortunately, the two did not end up seeing each other after that night out at Whiskey Row, and Julie and Joel did their own thing for the next couple of months.
Surprisingly, about 5 months later, something magical happened that really makes the most skeptical of humans believe in fate. In mid-April 2017, Julie was out at the Bar called "The District" for her friends birthday. Joel happened to be out at the same bar for a guy's night out. Typical Julie happened to be in the middle of a dance circle rapping her favorite hip hop song when all of a sudden Joel spots Julie across the bar stating to his guy friends, "oh my gosh, you guys, that's the girl; that never texted me back!" From there, one of Joel's friends looks over at Joel and states, "Joel, I know that girl. She's one of my friends! Let's go over there and talk to her!" As Joel and Julie's friend approach the group of girls, Julie gives her guy friend a big hug and gives Joel a huge smile. Within seconds, Joel and Julie start dancing and spark their initial connection (with Julie not realizing that she had already met Joel!). Julie states to Joel, "You look so familiar!" Joel returns a big smile to her completely playing it cool, pretending as he had never met her before. Not until Joel and Julie exchange numbers where Julie sees existing previous texts from them does she realize that she had met Joel before!
Joel instantly won Julie's heart by the attentiveness that he had towards Julie and her interests. For example, Julie shared that her favorite food was Italian. On their first date, Joel took Julie to one of her favorite Italian restaurants "Grimaldi's" which is still their favorite restaurant. Julie mentioned a Chris Brown concert coming up on one of their dates, thinking nothing of it. One week later, for Julie's birthday, Joel had purchased Chris Brown tickets, greeting her with a red bull vodka, one of Julie's favorite social drinks. The attentiveness, gentle nature, and maturity of Joel really made Julie trust that fate can actually happen and it is possible to find your match out at a bar! In June 2017, Julie and Joel made it official as girlfriend and boyfriend celebrating their relationship at one of their other favorite Italian spots, "Maggiano's."
2. Were you happy with the venue?: Yes we were happy with the venue. We picked the spot because Julie and her mom always stay at Mountain Shadows when Julie’s mom Nancy visits for Julie’s Spring Break. Julie and Nancy always loved the retro 1970’s feel of Mountain Shadows.
3. Describe the theme or color scheme of your wedding, and what you chose for your table setting at the reception: When me and Joel entered into the reception it was our first time seeing everything all decorated after getting married. The color scheme was gray and silver and almost embodied a magical whimsical Christmas winter forest. There were two lit up Christmas trees on either side of our sweetheart table, and our arch from our ceremony brought into the back of our sweetheart table. Sitting with each other at our sweetheart table was one our favorite moments of our reception because we had the connected feel of being with our guests, but also the intimacy of having our own table connecting just shortly after we had tied the knot. Our wedding arch was stationed right behind our sweetheart table. It was a circular shape covered in green ferns white roses and a few white ornaments to give that joy of holiday and Christmas cheer. I’ll never forgot looking over at Joel as the nutcracker was playing in the background while enjoying my decadent lobster bisque and I said to him “Joel this is so magical I feel like I’m eating dinner in a snow globe!” It was truly so special.
4. What piece of advice would you give other couples planning their big day? Enjoy every second of the planning process! When times get stressful take a moment to step away from the wedding task at hand and remind one another why you are greatful for each other.
