You guys, I love this couple for SO many reasons. I love their sense of humor, their willingness to do anything (thanks for being models in my styled shoot), their love for each other, and the way they like to do things a little bit differently. For instance, Christina dislikes jewelry. That is quite a predicament for a man looking to propose, huh? Well, Andrew got creative & two Billy Joel tickets and a coffee mug later they were engaged! A coffee mug? Yup, a coffee mug. Friends, Christina has (to put it lightly) a coffee addiction. When we were discussing their menu for the wedding she asked me about 4 times to make sure we had coffee available. There WILL be coffee at your wedding, Christina! 🙂 Oh, and for the record they decided to answer some of my questions in the third person. Again, doing things a little bit differently!

How did you two meet?

They met at a barbecue wiffleball tournament. Their first words to each other were a heated exchange of whether it was appropriate to run to first base with bat in hand. It wasn’t love at first sight. Later on that night, these two argued further about their respective football teams. Andrew wasn’t too keen on purple.  Christina was all set to ignore this ‘ignorant’ football fan, until later while playing a card game. When Andrew asked the crowd, ‘Can you ever just be whelmed?’, Christina immediately responded, ‘I think you can in Europe’ (He was quoting one of her favorite movies). She realized he might not be entirely terrible.

How did he propose?

Skip ahead a few years. Christina and Andrew wanted to have a little vacation, so they went down to DC for a long weekend last June. They went to the International Spy Museum, had a few fancy dinners, went kayaking on the Potomac, and walked to all kinds of DC landmarks. Unknown to her, Andrew had been carrying around a coffee mug all weekend, waiting for an opportunity to ask her a question (Somewhere along the line, Christina confided in Andrew her hatred of jewelry. She refuses to wear any, and told him if he every wanted to propose to her, he shouldn’t bother with a ring. It would be pointless. Coffee, however, now that’s the way to a girl’s heart). It was a very hot weekend, and walking around town got very tiring. So on the morning they were packing to leave, (when they were both well rested and fed and not at all sweaty) he decided it was the perfect time. With one knee down, he pulled out the coffee mug, asked Christina if she’d like to get married. Christina, confused for a split second, asked “To the mug?”, before realizing his intention, and accepted. Then he pulled out two tickets to see Billy Joel, and her smile got twice as wide. After packing they went to the zoo and saw panda bears. It was a good day

What do you think will be your favorite part of the wedding day?

Christina: I think my favorite part of the wedding day will be the point at which I finally get to call him my husband.  So naturally after that point I will also greatly enjoy constantly reminding him throughout the night that now he’s stuck for life!

Andrew: I am greatly looking forward to everything.  The ceremony, where our life together gets out of the opening previews.  Seeing all my favorite family and friends having fun. And of course throwing all the attention on Christina, who usually wants to be in the back row, quietly not being noticed.

Can you provide planning advice to brides in the thick of it right now?

Get a wedding planner!  There’s plenty to do even if you have a wedding planner so the fact that every time something comes up you don’t have to be the one to make a phone call or send an email or play phone tag with a  vendor is so helpful!  Also, you will not find a way to please everyone, (try to make everyone happy, but don’t try to make every single person happy.  Aim for like 90%) the sooner you reconcile with that fact the less stressful the process will be! Keep your own sanity at the top of the ‘must have’ list.  It’s your day to have fun, so don’t let other people put their preconceptions on you.  If you want to ride a llama into the sunset, do it.

What are you most looking forward to about married life?

Christina: We already do a lot of the typical things that people might look forward to in a marriage like always having someone there at the end of the day, having someone to share vacations with, or having someone to kick back on weekends with.  Therefore, I think the thing I am most looking forward to is not having to figure out who’s paying for coffee that morning or who’s paying for dinner that night.  No more playing the who’s gonna pay the check game because it’ll be coming from the same pot!

Andrew: I’m just looking forward to knowing that I’ll have someone who is always there for me.  Who knows how to make me laugh, and who I can share tons of memories with. So that when we’re 90 and can’t stand up, we can still reminisce about that great time we had when we laughed so hard we peed ourselves.  And then pee ourselves again, because we’re 90, so who’s gonna stop us.