The 4th of July wasn’t the only thing we were celebrating around here, I get to say I DO too! Yes, you heard me, I am officially a bride (gasp)!

Our Story: I call it a mix of serendipity & manifestation but Paul calls it luck. Paul and I met in Costa Rica on a yoga retreat at Blue Spirit (which I highly recommend) in May 2019. My flight got delayed and canceled in Dallas due to storms. And for the first time in his life, Paul, missed his flight out of Austin. We were quickly connected via phone by our instructor to figure out logistics on getting into Costa Rica. So naturally we spent the next few hours on FaceTime. When we finally got to meet, the next day,  it was nothing less than magical. On day 3 one of our instructors, could feel our chemistry and while at dinner leaned over to me and whispered, “you’re going to marry him.” Every waking moment that week was spent getting to know each other. After 6 days together, we left Costa Rica 100% committed to not only making it work, but to each other. We spent a year traveling between Austin and St. Louis and a few other trips along the way. We made each other our number one priority and everything else was figured out along the way.

Leading Up To: The weekend of March 14th, when COVID really hit our nation, I flew down to Austin to finally be a guest at a wedding with Paul. It wasn’t 48 hours later, my world was flipped upside down. I went from having 19 weddings left on the books to just 8. The amount of stress and anxiety trying to figure out not only my clients, vendors, contracts, emotions, I too was feeling my own personal worry, “what will I do?!” Paul never saw me in such a state of panic, I was an emotional mess to say the least. It was our morning walks where he really got me to focus and get my mindset ready for today’s problem. He was my rock, my partner in crime, and my backbone. His love and support was more than a proposal… his actions spoke louder than words. I lowered my expectations on getting engaged, I didn’t need it, he was 100% in.

Then, in the middle of the wedding industry falling apart, Paul had a kayaking incident leading him to a major shoulder surgery with a 6 month recovery. We truly got a realization on what life would be like with each other during these times.  The silver-lining to COVID was that Paul and I got to see first hand what the good times and the bad times would be like with each other.

The Proposal: On Friday, July 3rd at 8am Paul and I left for our morning walk. Even though I was completely surprised, it was no surprise to me this would be the way Paul would propose. Another thing that doesn’t surprise me was my appearance. Paul met and fell in love with me in a hot/humid environment wearing yoga clothes, so naturally he would propose to me the same way he met me, hot and in yoga clothes ha!

I will leave the actual proposal details for us, but to say the least, he got down on one knee and we promised to share the rest of our lives together. We both looked into each others eyes with tears full of joy. As we embraced arms, you could hear each others rapid heart beat. After he slipped the ring on my sweaty left hand I noticed it was not your ordinary ring(s) I could tell they were vintage. They happen to be his Grandma’s rings from her wedding dating back to June 2nd 1951.

The lake we always pass on our walk… 

The bridge 

The Byars family (plus Bunk & Maggie) & good friend Will came to celebrate for the 4th of July weekend!

Thanks to our third musketeer, Victor for waking up and taping on FaceTime AND you can hear my dad in the background 🙂 Thanks Mary for coordinating the most epic SURPRISE

This is the moment I lost it!

The Wedding:

Paul and I have decided to enjoy this special time and postpone any wedding planning decisions until we feel as though it is a safe time for friends and family to travel to

AUSTIN to celebrate with us in 2021.

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