Four Years down, A Lifetime to go!

Personal

I can not believe how fast 4 years has flown by. And yes, this is an Anniversary post! I don’t think many people know our story and how we met, so I thought it would be really fun to write about how we met, our engagement story and our wedding.

Our Anniversary

Dave and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary on Thursday, August 10th!!! We both had to work during the day and we really wanted to go to an amazing place in Branson, called Top of the Rock, but realized that we would be extremely tired if we decided to head to Branson around 7 (It is about a 45- 1 hour drive away). So we are saving that for another special occasion! Instead, we agreed on going to one of our favorite restaurants in town. We both came home, got dressed up and headed to eat at one of our favorite little Italian restaurants in downtown Springfield, Nonna’s. This has been a favorite of ours for the last 4 years and we definitely frequent it a lot when the weeks become more stressful and we need some “Carbs and Wine!” The food is amazing and the atmosphere is great! It is a tiny little restaurant that is owned by a family. Here’s a little bit about the restaurant from their website:

Nonna has a passion for pure ingredients only grown and nurtured within Italia. She knows Italian food is; the air, the earth, the sea. With a strong and organic history that cherishes a certain breed of cow to a beloved strain of grape, Nonna understands Italy’s love affair with food. It takes time. It takes heart. And Nonna is here to share her love of beautiful food with beautiful people like you!
Nonna’s Italian-American Cafe has been operating since the mid 90’s!

Thank you to so many of you that wished us a wonderful and beautiful anniversary!

The beginning

So I always say that God ordains people’s paths to cross and I completely believe that this was the case with us. It was a Monday evening and I was in my 1st year of my Masters program at Missouri State University. There was a girl’s bible study from my church that was meeting at a coffee shop downtown and my roommate, Ashley, and I decided to go. This particular coffee shop was a great place to hang out, but the coffee was more like water with grounds… not good. So, me being somewhat of a coffee snob, decided to go to Coffee Ethic (a legit coffee shop) down the street after the study. My roommate had come with me and so we both headed to Coffee Ethic and grabbed some drinks. While we were there, we ran into a christian band, “Building 429” and a couple other bands… they had just performed at Winter Jam up the street. Being spontaneous college/ young adults at the time, we decided we would stop in to see the last couple bands, mind you it was like 10pm. (Now I’m in bed by like 9:30-10… Oh, the life of college kids.) Well anyway, “Building 429”  got us hooked up with their road manager via phone, we gave him our phone numbers and we were able to get into the event for free. Josh, the road manager, took us around the venue introducing us to lots of performers, bands, tech people, merchandise guys and gals, and as we were walking, mine and Dave’s eyes locked! (Seems just like in the movies!) I walked past Dave’s booth a couple times, and he would look my way. I thought he probably sees lots of girls and the looks we’re nothing, but it was quickly confirmed by my roommate as we walked away, that it might be something. Later that evening I met him and we talked for about 10 min, and I totally made a fool of myself with the topic I chose to discuss. Why did I chose to talk with him about that? Really… Erin?? I thought. So,  I had just seen a documentary about tour buses on TV, like a week beforehand and was asking him about his tour bus and if they had the amenities and other things that I had seen on the TV show. (yes, this is what I talked with him about and I managed to tell myself it was totally fine and I would probably never seen him again.)

I really thought I would never see him again… there were no phone numbers exchanged, no Facebook friendship made, nothing- I thought he was cute, but I seriously never thought I would see him again, let alone marry him. Well, funny how God works! So, Josh still had mine and my roommate, Ashley’s number, and since he was totally into Ashley, he would call every once in a while just to chat and see what she was up to. Ashley, not really interested, would pick up the phone and talk a little and sometimes would hand me the phone to chat with him. I think about a month had gone by and Josh, knowing that he would have to devise a reason for calling (so as to not make Ashley upset), figured he would play matchmaker with me and Dave. Josh told Ashley that he thought Dave and I would be a great fit and after hearing all the wonderful things about me from Ashley and putting two and two together, they came up with a plan to get us talking to each other. It worked!

*my roommate and I in the center
Dave and I were both told that we each wanted the others number and began texting back and forth, leading to calls, and then skyping. We didn’t actually find out that we had been set up until we had been talking on the phone for about a month. They were really sneaky! Eventhough we were talking, we were trying to keep it pretty casual and just get to know each other… it really changed when we had been talking for about a month on the phone and I had a recital coming up. I have learned not to expect many people to come to my recitals or even ask people to, because they usually say they can and then something comes up last minute.  So, knowing that I had a recital coming up, I talked with Dave about it, but never asked him to come or thought he would show up. (Ooops I forgot some details… So I met dave at Winter Jam at the Winter Jam booth… He was a merchandise manager for the tour and he traveled a lot… he also lived in Nashville. )

Now that you have that knowledge, he was  off from touring the weekend that I had my recital, but again, I wasn’t expecting him to come or anything. Well, he did come! This was his only weekend off in Nashville for a while and he chose to drive from Nashville to Springfield to hang out with me and attend my 1st violin recital for my masters. ME, a girl he had only met about a month ago! That spoke volumes to me and that weekend was fabulous! 

That weekend we decided that we didn’t just want to date and be casual, we wanted to become boyfriend and girlfriend, with the hopes of a future. This was my first long distance relationship, and while I was nervous, I had a peace and knew it was right. 
So fast forward an amazing 6 months and we are meeting the families for Christmas. I met his and he met mine! I knew that he was the guy for me and he knew I was the girl for him. Well,  since I play a lot of weddings, and we were thinking about a wedding the following summer, I knew we had to call some venues. I had the perfect place in mind and I had envisioned my wedding being there after playing about 5 weddings there- It was the Loft at Keith Farms, a beautiful barn with lots and lots of land in the middle of Ash Grove, Missouri. So it was a little after January and we called the venue and with only 2 dates available, we did what anyone would do and picked a date… we picked August 10, 2013! 

Our Engagement

I absolutely love my engagement story, because it is so incredibly unique to us. I was in my last year of my masters and about a month away from having my final thesis done, my recital done, and my comps in order to graduate- I was beyond stressed. So, word to the wise.. if you are getting your masters, you should probably not stack all of the MOST IMPORTANT things for graduation within the last month…. talk about stressful!!! But, since I did, I talked with all my friends and literally told them not to ask me to hang out or do anything from the middle of March through the beginning of May. Remember how Dave and I had already booked a date for the wedding in August? Well, It was already April and I had not gone dress shopping, my best friend, Cat, decided to intervene. But this is what I thought at the time. 

Cat called me and set up a date at David’s Bridal and told me that we were going shopping for the dress. I was super excited, but told Cat that since I was on a time crunch, we only had 2 hours. 2 hours to find your dream wedding dress, is not a LOT of time! We arrived at David’s Bridal and about 10 min later as I was sitting talking with one of the ladies, my girls arrived! I was super excited that Cat thought to invite all my best girlfriends for this wonderful event and I even got a Starbucks drink. I had so much fun trying on all the beautiful dresses and having my girls there to help me decide, encouraging me as I tried on so many different styles. But, here is the back ground story that I didn’t know and that Cat was trying so hard to cover up. 

Dave had told me that he was on a tour and he was going to be super busy and may not be able to talk much. Whenever he was on tour, he would sometimes shut off his phone and/or the times for us talking may be super late, so I knew that I wouldn’t be able to contact him. Honestly, I was a little happy about that because I was in the middle of writing my thesis and needed all attention on that! So thinking that he was in like Canada or something, I never would have guessed that him and Cat devised our engagement plan! 

Dave called Cat about 2 weeks earlier and discussed some options and Cat decided to take me dress shopping since I really needed a dress, and it would keep me busy while Dave got into the apartment and set it up for the proposal. Although Cat was acting a little strange at the dress shop, I had absolutely no idea. I ended up finding my dress that night, and getting engaged the same night! 

Cat and I drove back to my apartment, after stopping for some food at McDonalds (this was to give Dave more time.. ), and as I opened the door, I was greeted by our favorite song and the whole hallway covered in rose petals, beautiful lights overhead, and candles lining the walls. I was completely surprised to see Dave on his knee, asking me to be his! (This is of course the condensed version, but I didn’t leave any details out).

The three E’s all graduated the same year ( Me with my master’s, Erik, undergrad, Emily, High school)

Our Wedding Day

The week of our wedding was insane! Wedding weeks are usually a little crazy, making sure everything is ordered and ready to go, but I had also just gotten hired to teach orchestra at Carver Middle School and that week was the week before school was to start. So, I had lots and lots of meetings during the day. I remember Monday- Friday that week, I was at the school in meetings till about 3 or 4pm- (Thursday night- we went and set things up at the venue, Friday night- Dress rehearsal and bachelorette events, and Saturday was the wedding!) And on top of that, I was freaking out a little bit about the wedding because it had been raining every day that week and our wedding ceremony was set to be outside. Well, good news was that the rain stopped Friday and since it rained so much, the grass at the loft where we got married was super green. 

Friday night was our rehearsal and then rehearsal dinner and we went to the venue to set up a little more for the big day. I was so blessed that many of my friends could come out and help me with my vision. I had worked all summer on making the decorations for the reception area, which was in the barn, and I had drawn out diagrams for how I wanted everything placed- I pretty much gave people the drawings and delegated. That is the way to go, people! No stress here! Then we had our rehearsal.. it was an incredible feeling to think that 24 hours from then, Dave and I would be saying those vows for real and we would be married! 

After the rehearsal, we went to dinner at “Famous Dave’s” and we got the All-American BBQ Feast and everything came out on Trashcan lids… it was really fun and a great environment for the group! There was a lot of variety and we got like 3 or 4 of the meals which served a ton of different things, so we had lots left over… it was the way to go. So good! 

After we ate, we took a whole lot of pictures of course and then the girls whisked me away for some girl time, the Bachelorette party. So we didn’t really do anything too crazy.. I was seriously exhausted from all the planning and getting ready for the wedding and school the next week, so the girls took me to a upscale restaurant which had amazing cocktails and we got the back room. We all ordered really pretty cocktails and chatted and then I opened gifts… I thought it was a fantastic time with the girls.

The day of our wedding, I had a brunch with my girls and with my female relatives (Mom, Mother-in-law, Aunts, Sisters, Sister-in-laws, best friends/ bridesmaids, cousins, and neices) at my apartment. My mom made her breakfast pizza, we had some delicious scones that I had made and coffee and mimosas. It was a lovely way to begin the wedding day festivities! I did my own hair for my big day- I love doing up-dos and used to do lots of girls hair for prom and dances back in the day. The makeup artist came to the house and made me look stunning for our big day. And we headed to the venue.

Once at the venue, after getting my dress on, it was time for me to take my bridal shots and get my flowers form my awesome florist, Tisha. Tisha and I go way back to my middle school days in Kansas City… she was one of the youth leaders and greatly loved by all the youth and me. We have a lot of fun memories and when I saw a couple years before that she had begun her own florist business, I just had to have her do my flowers and I am so glad that I did, They were absolutely  gorgeous!!! If you are in the Kansas City area or close by, Tisha would be fabulous for your wedding… get in touch with her Here. My photographer did a little bridal shoot for me around the barn and outside- I loved the way all the pictures turned out and was so glad I had a chance to get some bridal shots done.

Notice I haven’t  said anything about eating except for Brunch?… Well, brunch was around 10:30 that morning and it was already 2pm, myself and the wedding party were hungry. I kept thinking I will eat something later… yep, did not happen until after the wedding and reception. Tip to brides: If you are not going to be having any dinner or appetizers at your reception, make sure you have some food in the bridal chamber, sometime before the wedding, or you will be starving! 

I think our wedding was the best wedding ever.. and I know everyone always says that, but I truly think ours was. Everything went so well and I had so many favorite moments throughout the whole entire day. I loved taking pictures with my bridesmaids, ( I only chose 3 since i didn’t want too big of a bridal party) my sister Emily as maid of honor, Cat and Olivia as Bridesmaids, while Dave had his brother, his brother-in-law and a best friend for groomsmen. My brother, Erik played guitar and sang, while his wife now (then girlfriend) played violin with him for the prelude and I bet it was lovely. But some of my favorite things from that day would have to be walking down the aisle with my dad and talking with him about that day and life, the look on Dave’s face as I walked towards him, my dad leading us in communion (that was a beautiful beautiful memory), Dave having to put his favorite chapstick “burt bees,” on his lips before our kiss ( It was hilarious, and so him… Dave always has burt bees chapstick with him and in his pockets), and the party later with all my friends and family. Oh, and the amazing deserts!!!! We did a desert reception and OMG, all of the deserts were so good! 

Thanks for reading! See you next time friends! Xoxo- Erin

Starving after the wedding!!!

And here we are at 4 years of Marriage (can not believe it went so fast) and I would totally do it all again! I am so in love with my hubby and so incredibly blessed that God gave me him. If you want to read more about how great of a guy he is, check out this blog post. http://daveanderin.blog/2017/06/09/loving-the-best-way/

Again, thanks so much for reading and for all the congratulations!