Guest Bride Blogger Kirsy [JE #1] – Garcia For Good

How befitting that the first blog post of 2018 is from one of our amazing 2018 Guest Bride Bloggers. We are so excited for the year ahead! Without further adeiu, here is Kirsy. She is our first blogger who will tie the knot this year.

Certified Coordinated Bride
Kirsy
JE # 1 – Garcia for Good

Bride and Groom: Kirsy Vasquez & Ariel Garcia
Wedding Date: 4/1/2018
Wedding Location- Park Chateau Estate and Gardens in New Jersey

Ariel and I casually met in 2010 at a fraternity event at a nearby college. As a new member of Mu Sigma Upsilon Sorority, I wanted to network and introduce myself to other fraternity and sororities members. As I made my rounds, I noticed two familiar faces from Lambda Theta Phi Fraternity. I noticed Ariel and his brother Pahlevi around Bloomfield College a few times and I randomly started a conversation with them. I questioned Ariel why he was absent from the Bloomfield fraternity meeting on Tuesday, and he replied with a half-witted smile “I wasn’t aware of the meeting, maybe I need a “special reminder” of the dates. I boldly grabbed his phone and entered my number. A friendly conversation turned into daily and nightly talks. I never expected it to lead anywhere, but his sense of humor and charm were so infectious that every conversation we had anticipated our next encounter. On November 15, 2010, we went on our first date and frankly, we’ve been inseparable ever since.

The Proposal
Ariel and I always talked about traveling the world together, so we both agreed to book two to three trips a year to fulfill our wanderlust desires. In 2016 we visited Panama, Curacao, and decided that Paris, France would be our last trip of 2016. Before the trip, Ariel mentioned that we visited so many countries but have no great photos capturing the beautiful places we visited. So we decided to book a photo shoot for Paris (We thought we could save the photos to showcase for our future wedding.).

After an eight-hour flight, we finally arrived in Paris, France. We immediately embarked on a sightseeing tour and later that evening met our photographer Magdalena, to further discuss our photo shoot. We decided to book our photo shoot for the following day so that we could fully enjoy the rest of our vacation. Ariel and I got dressed; I got my makeup and hair done, and we both looked amazing!

After five hours of photos in our formal attire, we then changed into our casual outfits and descended to Pont Neuf, a bridge full of locks where couples write their names on padlocks and lock it up to assure their love is everlasting. We took a few photos, and the photographer told us to do whatever pose we liked; Ariel said, “Let’s do this pose” as he gets down on one knee. He then grabbed my hand, and I could feel my heart racing as I was thinking to myself, “Is he proposing or is this a part of the shoot?” Ariel then proceeded to tell me that there was no better place than Paris to do this as he pulled a ring box with a small video camera that seemed to be recording the moment and my heart felt like it was about to jump out of my chest. The moment he opened the box, a perfect ring was sitting inside glistening in the sunlight. I froze with excitement, nervousness, and disbelief. On November 15, 2016, I was engaged to my best friend. The past seven years were full of laughter, love, and happiness. He has been my biggest fan and supporter through purchasing my first home, completing my Bachelors and Master’s degree, and all the in-betweens that we have encountered together.

Planning our Wedding
Since I can remember I’ve always dreamed about having a beautiful wedding, call me a bit obsessive, but I was Pinning away my wedding before I met Ariel. Fast forward to today and my Pinterest board from 2010 looks nothing like my Pinterest Board in 2017. After Ariel and arrived home from Paris I immediately purchased wedding magazines and started booking venue tours. We’re extremely competitive, so I knew that the venue needed to have a “wow factor” the minute our guests stepped foot in the venue. After visiting eight venues we were not impressed by any of them, we knew that the venue we were looking for needed to blow everyone out of the water. After visiting Nanina’s in the Park, we asked about their newest sister property Park Chateau which was still under massive construction. We booked a visit to Park Chateau only to find that the venue was still under major construction, and we were unable to go inside. Instead, we watched a PowerPoint presentation, and we immediately were astonished by the amenities and sketches of the venue. With the highly-rated Park Savoy and Nanina’s in the Park we fully trusted that the Park Chateau would have the same standards as their sister properties.

On December 2, 2016, Ariel and I decided to book our April 1, 2018, wedding at the Park Chateau Estate and Gardens. The venue exudes elegance and class throughout each room with French-European decor. We deemed our wedding as the ‘2018 wedding of the year’ so we knew that we needed to strategically plan how every element of our wedding would “Wow” our guests. We booked our entertainment, photographers, videographers, and musicians. I thought the hardest part of wedding planning would be finding the wedding dress, but at only one visit to Park Avenue Bridal and I found “The One!” I knew my dress needed to be unique and not the standard “cookie cutter” dress, I wanted something that would be the talk of the wedding. The dress was a part of a weekend trunk show and the designer of the gown even offered to customize the dress however I wanted. The reactions and compliments of the customers at the store helped influence my decision for buying the dress. We recently hired a wedding planner to help keep us organized as we get closer to our wedding date. As the plans start unraveling we’ve grown more excited to see the finish product of our wedding. Stay Tuned!

Here are a few photos from our proposal and engagement shoot, enjoy!

XOXO,
Kirsy