Follow the Wife: Real Wedding: Alyson and Chris

Hey there friends. Guess what I’ve got for you today? Another real wedding. That’s like three real weddings in a row. I’m so good to you guys. This time I packed some more info in because as much as you love looking at pretty pictures, I know you also like cold hard facts. So I gathered up a little bit of both.

This real wedding is pretty special for a few reasons. One: The bride is extremely detail oriented, a little skill she picked up in her job in public relations. Basically, she’s super bride and I think you can learn a few things from her. Two: She has a great love story that will make you get little butterflies in your tummy when you read it. Three: I was in her wedding. (Scroll down, you’ll see me in there. Don’t worry, I’ll point myself out for you so you don’t miss me.)

Now, I am going to turn this blog over to Alyson:

Describe your relationship with Chris. What makes you perfect for each other?

Since Chris and I met when we were young (both 19!), I think we have a pretty unique relationship. We didn’t do the dating thing, no one asked the other to be exclusive. Heck, I don’t even remember who said I love you first (although Chris swears I said it first)! And I think that’s what makes our love so unique, because we never focus on what happened in the past; We focus on what’s coming in the future. We look forward to our “first’s” together. And why are we perfect for each other? Well, that’s easy, I mean we are both absolutely beautiful and ridiculously smart. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little (except the smart part, Chris really is a genius!). Chris and I have made it through our ups and downs, our good times and our bad times, and we still maintain an incredibly fun and loving relationship. To me, being perfect for each other is not what you have in common, where you shop, what TV shows you watch, or what sports teams you like to watch. It’s certainly not your popularity, and it’s definitely not your financial or social status (Ahem… Kris Humphries). It’s about love, and how your love has grown. No matter what may happen, I know how far Chris and I have come. We have an amazing time together. We laugh, we cry, we fight, and we laugh some more. It’s not about where we are, or who we’re with, it’s that we’re with each other. And that’s why we’re perfect for each other.

Tell me about the proposal. I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t really shocked when Chris asked me to marry him. We’d been talking about getting engaged, even went to look at rings. And when I would pressure him to pop the question (c’mon ladies you all know you secretly couldn’t wait, even if you didn’t “pressure” him), he’d just say something like, “it’s coming soon…” Soon is not a specific date. I wanted a date! Fast forward to May 2010. Chris and I had a vacation planned to Bermuda. We had his parents drive us into NYC, where we embarked on what was to be a VERY memorable vacation. The whole morning Chris was acting a little strange. He had his hands in his coat pocket, and he wouldn’t let me get close to his coat at all! When we first got on the ship we checked into our room, and immediately went to lunch. After lunch Chris wanted to go up on the top deck to watch the boat leave NYC and watch the sunset. Now, let me just tell you that it was the COLDEST May ever! It was like 35 degrees on May 9. All you New Yorkers know that’s really cold for that time of year. So I told Chris I didn’t want to go up. He begged, pleaded and told me it would only take “2 minutes” and we went upstairs. That’s where it happened. I cried, he cried. It was a beautiful moment that I’ll never forget for the rest of my life.

What did you love about wedding planning? EVERYTHING! No, really, everything! I work in public relations so I plan events for clients ALL the time, but never for myself. This was an event for ME (and my DH, of course). I loved calling vendors, and talking to past, current and future brides about ideas. I even joined a public forum to talk about planning. I loved being able to let my creative juices run wild!

What part of planning your wedding was the hardest? Probably deciding where we wanted to have the reception. Chris and I went to like 15 places before we decided on Giorgio’s at Fox Hill. Originally we wanted a vineyard wedding. That was scratched when we found out we’d have to spend $10,000 on a site fee alone, and that didn’t even include food or booze! Then we thought a mansion, but most of them were just so old that they weren’t very well kept. Almost like you were sacrificing something just to have beautiful pictures. Then we went, on a whim, to Giorgio’s. We were recommended by our friends parents and we just fell in love immediately. It was the best of both worlds—small vineyard on the property, brand new courtyard for the ceremony, and a golf course (Chris really wanted that because he plays golf). The food was amazing and the hall was beautiful. We still, three months later, have people raving about it. I couldn’t be happier with my choice!

(There I am! )

Any part about the process surprise you? The fact that Chris was so involved! He really wanted to take ownership of things, and I love that he wanted to help! He dealt with the band, the florist and the photographer! And he even helped me with other vendors throughout the planning process. He was a great help and he really added to our special day.

How did you incorporate your personality into the event? Did I mention that me and Chris are fun? We decided to show our fun personality by creating untraditional versions of tradition wedding elements. For example, our guest book was a basket of keys and we asked each guest to “share your key to a happy marriage.” We also incorporated both of our heritages in our favors—a martini shaker with a recipe for a our signature drink (French martini since Chris is French) and inside we included 5 Jordan almonds for the Italian tradition of “health, wealth, happiness, children and a long life.” Family is very important to us, so we had a huge display of family pictures from both sides. My bouquet was wrapped with a bracelet that my grandfather gave my grandmother, and my earrings were my grandmother’s sapphires that my mom reset for me as a gift. That was also my “something blue”. Other little things we had were a cigar and cordial bar with my dad’s favorites of both, a dessert station to satisfy Chris’s sweet tooth (kind of a contradiction because he’s a dentist), and the most important detail was our favorite cover band play. Having them added our fun personality to the reception since they let us choose the exact songs we wanted to hear throughout the evening. That was the most important, and favorite, detail!

What is your favorite memory from the wedding? Ah, so many to choose from, but I would have to say that above all, my favorite part was when I walked down the aisle and Chris was waiting for me at the end. We looked at each other the whole time I was walking down, and I could tell we both were overwhelmed with so many beautiful emotions.

The funny thing is the ceremony is what I spent the least amount of time on, and in the end, it wound up being the most important and favorite memory for me. The double rainbow that appeared after we said “I do” didn’t hurt either!

Was that enough questions? Ok, you're done. But leave any other comments here: I think that’s it! You really covered everything with your questions. Overall it was the best day of my life, and I can’t wait to have more “best days” with my husband and life partner.