Ashley and Greg's Wedding Part 1

Thanks to the powers that be at blogger, my blogger issue is fixed and I'm back to recap the 8th and final wedding that Chris and I attended this year!

On September 28th, Chris and I headed up to Connecticut for Ashley and Greg's wedding. We allotted lots of extra time to check into the hotel and head over to the ceremony, but unfortunately, really bad traffic and terrible weather threw a wrench into our plans. We sat in traffic for hours and had to go right to the church. I felt horrible - I HATE showing up late to weddings, but here we were pulling into the church parking lot 20 minutes late! We contemplated even going in, but it turned out we only missed the first 5 minutes of it since the weather had held everyone up! We saw a majority of the ceremony and I'm so glad we still were able to make it there.

I loved these music paper programs with the beautiful black satin ribbon

Ashley looked stunning and her hip hugging dress showed off her fabulous figure!

After the ceremony, we had just enough time to head to New Haven, check into our hotel, change, and rush over to the beautiful New Haven Lawn Club for the cocktail hour and reception.

personalized cocktail napkins

Beautiful centerpieces on cocktail tables

Sean, Chris and Jeff

pretty chandelier

Jeff loved these mini pulled-pork sliders

With the Hubby!

My drink of choice for the entire night was their signature cocktail the "Victoria's Secret": Coconut Rum, Chambord, Pineapple juice and Cranberry juice.

Greg is the co-founder and CTO of UnTappd, the social networking app for beer drinkers and lovers (download here!) So of course, Greg hand-picked the several beers they had on hand at the wedding. Guests who used the Untappd app even got a special badge for checking in that day in honor of the newlyweds!

We then entered the reception and saw all the great personalized details Ashley and Greg had put together for their big day:

Table number with placecards

Mr. and Mrs. signs on their chairs

Centerpieces

Card-box and wish tags

Next up: We party as the Reception begins!

Friday Find: Glove and Boots

Chris and I are off to our last wedding of 2012 today! You may remember Greg's amazing proposal to Ashley on the stage of the Broadway Musical, Wicked, and their big day has finally arrived! They are also using Storymix Media for their wedding, so I will be taking a slew of video and photos today!

I'll give a full report next week, but for now...enjoy this amazingly creative proposal from Glove and Boots from gloveandboots.com. Happy Weekend!

Proposal Story: Ashley and Greg

Today is the last day to enter my first EVER Giveaway! Be sure to leave me a comment on Tuesday's post to enter to win a handmade makeup bag (made by my mother) and a handcrafted pear soap favor (from Dragonfly Soaps) from my bridal shower! Click here to enter!

Now on to the good stuff...

 

About a month ago, two of my friend from college, Ashley and Greg, got engaged. This was no ordinary engagement and the proposal story was too fabulous NOT to share! Greg proposed on stage at the Gershwin Theatre after a performance of WICKED on Broadway! Ashley is a fabulous actress, singer, and dancer who loves Broadway, and this proposal could not have been more perfect for her. Here's her story!

I have always been a dreamer. My passion has always been theatre and performing. I have dreamed of the day when I would perform on a Broadway stage. Recently a new love has come into my life, my boyfriend Greg and as we have grown closer in our relationship and talked of marriage, for some reason, the dreamer in me never imagined how my proposal would go. Yet on Tuesday March 22nd, my two loves joined forces and gave me just what I would have imagined.

A week before this big event a coworker of mine offered me two tickets to see WICKED, including a backstage tour. My coworker is a good friend with someone who plays in the orchestra pit and he had two house seats available. Free tickets floating around my office is nothing out of the ordinary. I work at a prestigious Musical Theatre Conservatory and Theatre Company in NYC, but the opportunity to get a backstage tour is not very common, so I could not pass this opportunity up.

I decided to take Greg since he had never seen it before and he actually agreed to go, not being a very loving theatre patron himself, but he knew how much I loved WICKED, so he agreed to go.

Source

The night of the show I was running late, as usual, to meet him for a quick bite to eat and he was already on his second beer and dressed up in a suit.

“Why the fancy suit today?”

"It's suit day at work, we have to wear them every Tuesday.”

“Oh, ok.”

This should have been my first hint that something fishy was going on, but I was oblivious. It might have been the Long Island Iced Tea I was sipping on.

Immediately upon sitting down in the theatre, my boyfriend stands back up and is half way down the aisle saying he needs a water bottle.

“But I have one right here.”

“I want my own.”

He came back with no water bottle. This should have been hint number two, but the lights began to dim and the show started before I could question him any further. 

Once the show was over, we met our tour guide at the Stage Left lobby. I was so nervous; of course little did I know it was Greg who was really nervous! Going backstage at a Broadway show was breathtaking, not to mention the fact that I might actually get to stand on a Broadway stage.

We got the first class tour. I saw TONY award winning costumes, amazing set pieces, props, the complete inner workings of a Broadway musical and I was seeing it all.

There was a talk-back session with some students and cast mates in the theatre, so I was nervous we wouldn’t get to go onstage, but my tour guide did not let me down.

When I stepped on that stage, it was unreal. Looking out into the audience from the Broadway stage of WICKED was a dream coming true. It felt so great to be there on that stage rather than sitting in the audience.

Our tour guide suggested taking a photo to commemorate the tour and I was all for it.

“Thank you so much for the tour and the tickets!” I said.

“Ashley, he didn’t get you the tickets.” Greg said.

“What?”

“I bought the tickets Ashley.”

“You did what?”

That’s when it all became a blur. The next thing I knew, Greg was explaining something about buying the tickets, but all I saw was him was getting down on one knee, on the stage, of the Broadway theatre, and a ring box was coming out of his pocket!

I froze; I thought it was a joke. This couldn’t really be happening. I looked to Greg and then to the tour guide and then back to Greg.

“Ashley, I made your dream came true tonight by being on a Broadway stage. Will you now make my dream come true? Ashley, will you marry me?”

I had no idea going into that night that I would be proposed to. I was completely shocked. I could never have dreamed that I would be proposed to on a Broadway stage. Greg went above and beyond, not leaving a single detail out and showed me what a romantic he is. Wearing the suit that I thought was for work was for the proposal, wanting a water bottle at the theatre, was to switch the ring box to the opposite pocket so I wouldn't see or feel it sitting next to him, and the tickets were in fact not from work but from Greg who had bought them and planned this whole event out with my family and coworkers back in January. I could not have imagined anything more perfect and I never picked up on a thing. I made my Broadway debut that night, with the man I love right beside me directing the show.

Congratulations and best wishes to you two and thank you so much for sharing your romantic proposal!