Chrissy and Glenn are high school sweethearts, so it’s safe to say that after 14 years together, they know each other pretty well. This is how Glenn knew to hide the engagement ring he had designed in the most concealed way he could think of (apparently Chrissy can get a little nosy). Glenn carved out the center of a large candle that was a fixture in their home, wrapped the ring in a small plastic bag, placed the ring inside, and resealed the candle. The candle is one Chrissy walks by several times a day, but she had no idea a gorgeous ring was nestled inside.
Chrissy and Glenn love taking spontaneous trips together, so when they booked a small getaway to New York, Chrissy was not suspicious of a proposal, but Glenn had it all arranged. They got an early start their first day there, grabbed pastries at a local bakery and ate breakfast in front of, you guessed it, Tiffany & Co.’s flagship store. After their re-creation of the iconic movie, they headed for a stroll though Central Park. A saxophone player had just set up and started playing as they walked toward Bethesda Terrace. As they approached the famous Bethesda Fountain, Glenn asked a couple to take their picture and secretly asked them to also record the proposal. Of course Chrissy said, “Yes,” and they spent the rest of the day discussing all the steps Glenn had to take to be secretive, including the now famous candle disguise.
The couple’s planning began with finding the perfect venue, and once they found it, everything seemed to fall into place fairly easily. They knew they wanted an art-deco theme, carried out through the use of forest green, gold and black with old Hollywood posters, cameras, vintage frames and men’s tuxedos. Mission accomplished. The décor was simply stunning.
Although the planning went fairly smoothly, the morning of the wedding left Chrissy feeling a bit unsettled. She was worried that she didn’t plan enough and had a hard time shaking the feeling that she missed something. But once the guests started to arrive and the festivities began, she could feel the love in the air and was able to completely enjoy herself. She says, “When the ceremony began, we told ourselves that we did our best planning and this is the time we have to enjoy it.”
After enjoying the fruits of their labor in planning, Chrissy and Glenn escaped to an exotic vacation in Bali where they had the time of their lives experiencing the culture, the sunsets, the beaches and the nightlife.
—Kelley Saia
Check out their special feature film from Passion Studio!
First Dance Song
“The Look” by Ryan Tedder
Father/Daughter Dance Song
“The Way You Look Tonight” by Frank Sinatra
Mother/Son Dance Song
“Everything I Do” by Bryan Adams
Bouquet Toss Song
“Wannabe” by Spice Girls
Garter Toss Song
“That’s What I Like” by Bruno Mars
Details about the cake
– Cake and cupcakes
– Macarons
– Dessert shooters
– Bride & Groom character cookies
Details about the flowers
All flowers were hand chosen by our amazing wedding designer that matched our color
palette and elements of our overall theme.
Anything else you’d like to share about your wedding?
We were very lucky and grateful to the vendors that we chose. The top vendors that I
highly recommend would be Ava’s Cakes & Events (wedding designer), Passion Studios
(photography and videography), and Method Entertainment (DJ and lighting).
Any tips you’d give brides and grooms planning their wedding today?
Bride – There’s no doubt that planning for your wedding is stressful and extremely
nerve-racking. The biggest tip that I have is that on the day-of, just let all that stress go and live in the moment. It may be cliche to say, but we’re glad that right before the ceremony started, we just let go of all that stress. Pay attention not just to the big event happening but also the small things. For us, it was how our flower girl decided to throw all of her flowers out of the basket before getting to the aisle, how we ended up not finding our handmade rope/ribbons for our knot tying ceremony so we had to improvise, and how everyone was able to eat our character cookies but us. The mixture of those big and small events make up the memory of your wedding so don’t forget to just breathe and enjoy. Every bride and groom will prepare to the best of their ability, so be confident that you’ve done everything that you could up to that point.
Groom – My tip is to create Excel sheets to keep everything organized. Yes we had, what felt like a million Excel sheets, but we knew where everything was and what was needed to be done. Upload any and all documents (such as receipts and contracts) to a cloud storage for safe keeping and reference when you’re on the go. Even though majority of our communication with vendors was via phone or email, I still made it a point to transfer any contracts from my email account to the cloud (we all know things get lost in our email all the time). This was a life saver for us since we our wedding was a out of our home state, we had access to everything all the time.
Be practical, be patient, compromise, and have fun.
What would you have done differently if you had the chance?
The one thing I definitely would have done differently was not to wait until the final
week to have all the small details prepared. I thought a week before the wedding was plenty of
time to get things done. Oh, how I was WRONG! I remember having to delegate a lot of the
tedious and time consuming tasks to my family (I had no choice but to fully trust their creative
abilities), all while Glenn and I were putting together the seating charts, ordering last minute
items on Amazon, and finishing up what was left of our DIY crafting projects on our list.
I even remember quite vividly, having to do last minute things the night before as well as the
day of the wedding! We were so focused on getting the big things done in the beginning of our engagement and doing the small thing last, when we should have done both simultaneously. So what should have been a calming, and relaxing experience was pretty much the exact opposite
for us. BUT! I will say that in the end, luck was definitely on our side because everything turned out perfectly. Moral of the story? Time management is everything when it comes to wedding
planning. So do yourselves a favor by checking off big things like booking the venue, vendors,
etc. while also taking time to start the smaller projects, because time doing these projects
definitely adds up.