In honor of the wedding being SO CLOSE, I wanted to do a Q&A to share some of the behind-the-scenes wedding details that we’re so excited about. The pictures above are also just a few of my favorites of us (that aren’t our engagement photos, as I love ALL of those. You can see them here, here and here.). All of the build up has led to this weekend and we couldn’t be more excited for it!!!
What are you most excited about after being married?
Danielle: That we’ll actually be MARRIED! We like to joke that we’ve waited our whole lives for each other haha, so now we’re just making it official. I’m excited to start this next chapter of our lives together. We’re beginning the house hunting process, so we really feel like we’re adulting.
Jake: I’m most excited about starting our life together and getting a house. We want to get a fixer upper, and I’m really looking forward to beginning that project together and making our house a home. And having a yard for the boys to run around and play in.
How many kids do you hope to have?
Danielle: This is 100% in God’s hands. If we do have them, Jake is adamant that we have 2 so they aren’t an only child, but it’s very up in the air at this point! Right now, our fur babies are more than enough haha.
Jake: As many as she’ll let me haha. It’s up to Danielle. But ideally, I’d say 2-3. I’d like to have a boy and a girl, and make sure they have a sibling. I loved growing up with brothers, so I want that for our hypothetical children.
Where did you meet?
Danielle: We met at a rock climbing gym! I was working there temporarily and he came in with a mutual friend who introduced us. We ran into each other a few times after that when he could come in to climb (he usually went to another gym).
Jake: We met at a climbing gym, which right off the bat gave us a mutual interest in something we both loved. It helped foster our relationship in the beginning, having something in common that we were both passionate about.
How did Jake propose?
Danielle: He gave me a custom Christmas ornament! Every year for Christmas, my family always exchanges ornaments as one of our gifts to each other. This year was the first Christmas I ever spent away from my family, and he knows Christmas is my FAVORITE, so he made it extra special. He proposed in front of his whole family. It was so sweet. You can read the whole story here.
Jake: I proposed on Christmas Eve with a surprise present which was an ornament asking if she would marry me. When she opened the present, I got on my knee and gave her the ring, asking her to marry me. Christmas is her favorite holiday and I wanted to do it on a special day so it would be extra memorable.
Jake, what was your first thought when you saw Danielle after you found out she was single?
Danielle: So, this question is oddly specific because it’s from my sister and she knows the backstory haha. When Jake and I first met, I was seeing someone else. But he was immediately interested and told his 2 best friends that there was something special about me. When he found out I was single, he came to find me at the gym, changing his own climbing schedule to match mine.
Jake: “FINALLY” lol. Then, “Don’t screw it up”. Then I began my master plan of cat and mouse to keep her forever. And a little bit of creeping to find out when she’d be at the gym to “run into her”.
What’s been the best part of wedding planning? The worst?
Danielle: The best part has been the process itself. I’ve been planning my wedding in my head (and on Pinterest) since I was about 16 but actually doing it for real was so much fun. I LOVE the concept of marriage. So actually being able to make it my dream day, the way I’ve always imagined it, has actually been a dream come true. And at the end of it all, I get to marry the man of my dreams, so it’s pretty amazing and I thank God for all of my blessings every day!
The worst part is because I care so much, it gets to be stressful! It was smooth sailing until about the last 2 months when I got a liiiittle on edge. But I finished everything with a week to spare so I could actually relax. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself that it takes the fun out of the planning process!
Jake: The best part has been that as a groom, very little is required of you haha. The worst has been seeing the mental stress it caused Danielle because she wanted to make everything perfect. All the worrying that it wouldn’t go as planned, when I know deep down it will be perfect no matter what because we’re getting married.
How did you know they were “the one”?
Danielle: This probably sounds a bit odd. I went with him to his great-grandma’s funeral, and I met his extended family for the first time. After, everyone went to eat and celebrate his great-grandma’s life at his second cousins house. While we were there, a feeling just hit me like “this is my new family”. I felt very comfortable around all of these people I had just met for the first time, in what would typically be a very uncomfortable situation (for anyone, but I really don’t handle death well). I just knew I would see all of them again, and that meant Jake was my future husband. That was about 3 months into our relationship and I knew with 100% certainty after that.
Jake: It was very apparent early on that we were really similar in so many ways that I began to realize that we were just made for each other. I knew she was something special because of how excited I got every time I saw her, and how good she made me feel. She tried to break up with me pretty early on because she was afraid and had just gotten out of a bad relationship, and I just told her, “no, this is the real deal, we’re doing this”. And that was it…10 months in, I was down on one knee.
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We are so excited to get married and spend or lives together! Thank you for reading along and being a part of our journey!
XO,
Dani
