I am Lady T and I love weddings. There, I said it. I love the absolute unabashed joy, the dancing, the beautifully thought out details and flowers and invitations, the dresses and food and camaraderie. I love that weddings are such a happy day for everyone, not just for the bride and groom. I have been to many, many weddings and have loved each and every one of them. I’m now thrilled to be planning my own wedding with my best friend, Z, which will take place on 10.12.13 in Texas in Z’s hometown.
We have had a long engagement. It’s been a year this week and we still have six more months to go, but I am grateful for the extra time and the relaxed pace. We got engaged in April of 2012 in El Valle, Panama, a little town that sits in a hollowed out volcano up in the mountains. The proposal was simple and one of the single greatest moments of my life. Z got down on one knee next to a waterfall and said the most perfect sentence I have ever heard: “T, will you marry me?” and pulled out his grandmother’s ring. I of course said “yes” and slipped on the ring, which just happened to fit perfectly (yes, I felt like Cinderella). Since then we have been planning the biggest extravaganza of our lives. And it has been so much fun (most of the time).
One of the first things we did after we got engaged was sit down together and map out what our perfect wedding might look and feel like. We luckily had a very similar vision. We both wanted a weekend-long celebration with friends and family that would give us enough time to spend a few quality moments with everyone. We wanted lots and lots of music and a big dance party. At one point we began joking that we were planning a music festival in addition to our wedding. Games and activities and competitions rounded out our vision. But most importantly, we wanted to get married on the banks of a river.
Z and I met river guiding in Oregon on the Rogue River in 2007. For two blissful four-day river trips, we were glued at the hip, but the life of a river guide is nomadic and we parted ways at the end of the summer. Fast-forward a couple years to the summer of 2009. I was working on the Middle Fork of the Salmon in Idaho and Z came out to run the sweep boat for the season. It only took him one six-day trip to sweep me completely off my feet. A few evenings of serenading me to sleep and many sweet gestures did the trick quite well. After that, we were on separate trips for the summer, romancing the old fashioned way with love letters, heart-shaped rocks, mixed CDs and other tokens of our affection.
During a 24-day Grand Canyon river trip that fall, we decided to move to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for the winter. I had spent most of my winters, post-college, living in ski towns, working at ski shops and “living the dream” as river and ski bums like to say. Although Z had never lived in the snow, love will make you do crazy things and he packed the car and headed north from Texas. I’m pretty sure he had decided I was completely crazy when he drove into Jackson for the first time and the temperature was -25F. Luckily, the temps warmed up to the teens and the skiing was incredible. One winter of steep skiing, mountain music, and incredible new friends was enough to lure us in and we now call Jackson our home year-round. These days, I work at an outdoor public relations agency in town and Z spends his winters teaching kids to ski, spring and fall teaching swiftwater rescue and wilderness first aid courses, and river guiding a few hours away in Idaho during the summer.
We are planning our Texas music festival fiesta wedding remotely, but it’s been a good excuse to visit family and friends and the more we plan, the more we fall in love with our summer camp venue. We can’t wait to get all of our friends and family together in one place to celebrate love and life, and to spend an entire weekend laughing, singing, playing and being incredibly happy.
I’m excited to share our planning adventure with you and to get and give advice as well!
Images by Jaime Moore Photography: www.JaimeMoorePhotography.com