Christmas proposal turns into happily ever after

Dakota and Heather may have known each other since High School, but it wasn’t until later that their love story began.  We asked them to answer a few questions about how they met and how they planned their wedding, and we wanted to share them with you here on the blog.

Q: Tell us the story of how you fell in love
A:Me and Dakota went to school together. I had always known who he was but never really talked to him. A lot of my friends were friends with him and we eventually hung out randomly once with our mutual friend Joey at the Arnold Days carnival. It was Sophomore year of High School. After that time of hanging out we started to talk more and he became my “husband”. That was my nickname for him. We used to pass notes back and forth through our friend Sara because she had classes with the both of us and eventually we just hung out more and more and then we started dating. It was Sophomore year into the summer. We were both immature back then so it didn’t work out, but we still talked and sometimes hung out after that until we both got into other relationships. Until, the last day of Senior Year. We hadn’t spoke for probably a year or so, until that day. He showed up to ride in the senior parade with us, which completely shocked me but all of our friends were mutual friends, so it made sense. Things got a bit crazy that day, but it brought us back together and we have been going strong for almost 8 years now. 8 years will be the day before the wedding.

Q: What are each of your careers?
A: We both work for our family businesses. I work for my dad at JH Exteriors. I run the office and a dozen other hats!  Dakota works for his dad, installing & refinishing hard wood floors at Jerry’s Fine Hardwood Flooring and Restoration.

Q: Tell us about the Proposal and how long was your engagement?
A: Every year on Christmas Eve we go to Dakota’s Grandma’s house with the rest of his family and after we have dinner we go downstairs to open presents and then play games. We had just finished opening presents and someone said “is that all of them” so Dakota gets up and walks over to the tree and says, no I think there’s one more. Well I of course, wasn’t paying any attention, I was talking to his cousin and next thing I know, he’s down on one knee in front of me asking me to marry him. The only people that knew what was going on was his mom & step dad & his sister because she was recording it. I was in complete shock, was not expecting it at all. I of course, said YES!  It was the best present I’ve ever received and I know it meant so much for him to do it in the basement that he has spent so many of his Christmases with his family. It was perfect! Our engagement was a year and a half.

Q: Please provide a list of vendors and why you chose them?
A: Applause Productions – I chose them because they have nothing but raving reviews from so many others who have used them and I didn’t want to hire a company that I felt like I needed to babysit or had to worry about. The work they do is amazing and it shows how much passion they have for what they do. The package prices were so reasonable and really made it a non-question.

Graze Catering – Graze was the second food vendor that I had tried and boy am I so happy I chose to go with them. There food was absolutely delicious and the cost was exactly where I needed it to be. I was happy to spend the extra couple of dollars per person to get the communication I get with Amelia, and the food itself is worth it. I love supporting small business owners.

Pie is Art – I first tried their pies at one of Haue Valley’s open houses and I knew from the get-go I didn’t want just cake at my wedding. So I set up a meeting with them to try some specific pies and my oh my, Cindy blew me out of the water. The pies are absolutely delicious and the little details she puts in them is really so perfect.

Kris Bokal- I met Kris when she was doing the flowers for my friend’s wedding and I always told myself when I got married that I would want her to do mine. She only does it for friends and family now, but she worked at Walter Knoll’s for a very long time. She took the pictures I showed of ideas and ran with it and added to it and made them 10x better than I would have ever been able to imagine. She truly is amazing and is so sweet. I wouldn’t have wanted to work with anyone else. She took my stress of picking out flowers away!

Cake House Design – I met with them to just get a very simple cake for us to cut. I got a cake there for my mom’s birthday and had so many compliments on it and I knew they would make me a perfect simple cake. They were so easy to communicate with and sit down with and just amazing at what they do. I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about them!

Q: Tell Us about your Style
A: My overall colors are Light Grey, Lavender and lilac. I have 3 different center piece designs. The first one is just a large milk jug with greenery falling out and a candle lit on a vintage mirror. Simple yet beautiful.
The second table design is square terrariums. There will be two black terrariums one large and one small. The small will give it the natural feel with the moss and succulents. Then the large one will have greenery and a candle inside with silver and gold mercury candle holders to tie it all together.

The third table theme is a large gold terrarium with a candle inside and greenery wrapped around it. With gold and silver mercury candle holders to tie it all together and match the other table theme.

Q: What About the Rings?
A: My ring is a pear cut style. It has channeled diamonds on each side and then my band is a channeled diamond to match. Dakota’s ring is a basic black ring, Tungsten because he is allergic to nickel and will not be wearing it for work so we wanted a cheaper alternative. The brand is actually “Duke Collections” on Amazon.

Q: Your favorite wedding planning tip or advice for those still in the planning process:
A: Let people help you. If your anything like me, you’re stubborn and independent and feel that it would be faster for you to just do something rather than ask for the help and push it off to someone else, but I promise you, it’s not worth the stress. Let your bridesmaids help as much as possible. I also really wish I would have chosen to get a wedding planner for the day of because it’s a lot of stress to plan everything out when you’ve never done it before.

Love always finds a way and that is exactly what happened for Heather and Dakota. We couldn’t be happier to have been a part of their wedding story.