Love can be so many things; silly, funny, sad, quirky, romantic, serious and so many more. With Chris and I, it was love at first sight back in 2010. Love at first sight is something that my parents of 40+ years of marriage experienced as well back in 1972.

After dating for 4+ years, Chris took me out on a date night. We went to several places but it was Edora park, where he asked me to marry him. It was at dusk and we walked right under the tree where we originally had our first date. He asked me, “What did you think when you first saw me?” I asked him to go first, but he replied, “No, you go first.” so, I did. I thought we were just being goofy so I blurred out, “I thought you were really hot!” then I said more silly things. His first words after mine were, “You’re going to regret saying that.” with a goofy smile on his face. He then started to say some of the most romantic words about me and us. He looked up and pulled out my great-great grandmothers ring box, from 1918 and proposed and I said, yes!

For 5 years, Chris and I have had a blessing of a life together; we took the same classes in college, work together, live together, and volunteer together. We love being around each other 24/7 and for 5+ years now, we can’t get enough of each other. Rocky and Bullwinkle, the three musketeers-the third being our fuzzy animals which make up at least the size of a standard human. He’s my huckleberry and I’m his honeybee. So many goofy sayings, but in simple; we are just two love birds who are excited to continue on as husband and wife.

Our love story grows daily, we both love to volunteer, we are each a member of the Fort Collins Rotary After Work club which has done some of the most incredible projects; reconstruct a school in Nepal for the untouchable children, sponsor orphans, create woman’s empowerment centers to allow them to be self sustaining, volunteer a week of our time to grow along with 130+ 8th graders in a leadership camp, the list goes on and on. When we volunteer, people are teaching us how to be better towards each other and with that we become better humans. Volunteering creates teamwork and I know we can always rely on each other. One of the best characteristics of our love story.

Chris was busy with work, we both work together and often have to switch roles to allow one another to go do things. Selling fine antique jewelry is more challenging work than one would think…

My mom and I went on a Bridal Crawl in Estes, during that time, I signed up for the Wild basin Tour, I instantly fell in love with their venue. Making this short and sweet, I practically spewed the details at Chris about this place. It meant the world to us, our favorite movie is Pride and Prejudice and at the end, Mr. Darcy comes to meet Lizzy in the meadow to express their love for one another. Finding that Wild Basin had a meadow with a backdrop of mountains, we had to say yes. (Can you tell yet we love history? – Grandmothers ring, selling antique jewelry, favorite movie Pride and Prejudice, but oh, there’s more!)

We did, we are a DIY couple and enjoyed saving money when we could, creating things on our wedding day made it even more special to us. We made the bride and groom pine cones for our cake topper with old white and black seed pearls from some old costume jewelry. Chris and I purchased two antique candy dishes a few years back which became the best option for our wedding candy favors. We created an arch way with my parents, the wood came from their property from a small aspen grove. After the wedding it will be used in a garden.

We thoroughly enjoyed created the invitations, taking our own engagement pictures in the Poudre Canyon, cake tasting and so much more. Chris and I went with both my parents to go dress shopping, he actually pick-out my dress and it just so happened to fit at the time and it was a sample AND it was on sale! But that all soon came back to me when I decided to go on a life changing health style, losing nearly 30 lbs before my wedding. I had to get my dress altered 2 weeks before the big day because I kept loosing weight. It felt amazing, still to this day, I am becoming more healthy and excited to feel even more confident.

I would say, out of everything, it was a breath of fresh air to sit down personally with our Pastor Steve Easterday-McPadden. He helped and guided us towards this wonderful day and collaborated with us on many personal levels. His signing, This is the Day, to us at the ceremony site, incorporating the ‘tying of the knot’ and focusing on pure love in his scriptures and the word Destiny.

From reading, and viewing the photos, you may have seen that there were many vintage themed pieces in our wedding, we love antiques! Not only is it our job on a daily basis but we truly love history. We are fascinated by items that can secretly tell their history. It is like we are decoding the message that is either hidden by wear, hallmarks, or other small fine ‘tells.’

In our wedding; we used my dad’s 1955 Chevy Bel Air, this was not a rental. My dad purchased this at an auction because this was the same color, style and year that he had back in High School. Chris and I though it would be niffy to take a drive in it for our wedding.

That poem originated from England and likely came to be in circa 1890’s or older, however, there is physical proof that it was printed in an 1896 newspaper.

Something old; My great-great grandmothers wedding ring from 1918, and her wedding lace which was used in my grandmothers dress, my mom’s dress and now it was used in our wedding as the ribbon for the tying of the knot ceremony. Chris wore a vintage vest, too. My circa 1850’s 14k yellow gold Persian turquoise and diamond studs, my antique 18k yellow gold love know ring which is and always will be worn on my right pinky to represent endless love and my circa 1880’s signet ring with my maiden  initial of, ‘E’ to always remember my history. Finally, we used old photographs of our past loved ones and saved the first row aisle for them. When my parents gave us our blessing, Pastor Steve said, “Surely, we know that Bob and Idabelle would also give us their blessings.” Bob and Idabelle were Chris’ great-grandparents but served as his parental figures during his life.

Something new; My wedding dress, and many more small pieces. In fact, my veil, although appears to be dated or vintage, is new. It is a Juliet cap with two tiered tool layers finished off with lace. This style has always been my favorite…

Something Borrowed; For my necklace, I borrowed my mom’s 18k yellow gold reliquary circa pre 1750, it was passed down from generation to generation. My mom wore it on her wedding day, my sister-in-law wore it on her wedding day, then on August 30th, 2015 I wore it. To my future daughter-in-laws or daughters, I hope you will wear it, too.

Something Blue; My 14k yellow gold blue Persian turquoise diamond earrings. (I love that this crossed off two things-old and blue.)

And a Silver sixpence in her shoe; I left this one out, but did leave a penny behind in my dressing room 🙂

Something a few people have said to us is, “I bet you’re glad that the day is over.” Nooooo, we were so bummed out that the day was over! We still are, and we’re currently on our honeymoon! Even though it is over, everyday is a new day. After 5+ years of dating, we are both ready for this next chapter. Thank you to everyone who helped us create these lifelong memories, and thank you to all of our vendors for making this day exceptionally beautiful, tasty, fun and energetic.

Something that I will leave off and say is that; when I look at Chris, and he looks at me, we see home in each others eyes…

Godspeed to this beautiful journey!

Mr. & Mrs. Terry

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