I will also be doing more Budget Bridal posts. You can see previous posts HERE
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Anything else you want to add.
Amber & Joseph
Portland, USA
Where did you meet your Bride/Groom?
I grew up in Southern Wisconsin and lived there until I met my husband who was living in Montana. He was born in Georgia, then grew up in North Carolina before moving to Montana with his family.
We met online at Catholicmatch.com, both having grown up in families where religion was a big part of family life. We're not ultra religious, but we're both well educated in the practices of the church by living them while growing up This was a dating site where I felt I could find someone with similar morals and the same baseline Religion to have a relationship with a solid foundation. Joseph and his family were also practicing Catholics, but he tells me he joined catholicmatch.com mainly to do the online personality assessment, and I messaged him! That's when he decided to get the full subscription, and we just hit it off from there.
We met online at Catholicmatch.com, both having grown up in families where religion was a big part of family life. We're not ultra religious, but we're both well educated in the practices of the church by living them while growing up This was a dating site where I felt I could find someone with similar morals and the same baseline Religion to have a relationship with a solid foundation. Joseph and his family were also practicing Catholics, but he tells me he joined catholicmatch.com mainly to do the online personality assessment, and I messaged him! That's when he decided to get the full subscription, and we just hit it off from there.
When did you get married and where?
We got married on April 12, 2008 in Kalispell, MT. I made the move to Montana to further our relationship in person, and we decided to have the wedding there, rather than traveling to my hometown in Wisconsin for the wedding.
What dress/suit size were you when you got married? (only answer if you want to)
I had lost around 40 pounds prior to our wedding, not for the wedding but because I had joined a weight loss support group prior to our engagement. At that point I was down to a size 18/20 from a size 24.
What was your experience of finding a dress/suit?
Living in a small city surrounded by mountains, I didn't have much access to the larger bridal stores, but I did go into a couple local ones. One of them had one plus size bridal gown that was a resale. It wasn't the color I wanted, and I didn't look much further because I found a bridal bargains book that suggested finding a dress you liked and buying it from the Chinese manufacturer on Ebay. I did just that. We were on a pretty tight wedding budget, and my mom emailed me one day with a dress that just felt like the right one. I was able to purchase it for $250 plus $50 shipping. I had it professionally steamed, and I thought it turned out to be a beautiful wedding dress. I wanted some covering on my arms, and my mom made a bolero jacket out of a stretch-lace.
Describe your day.
Our wedding was held in a Catholic Church in Kalispell, MT. The stained glass windows were beautiful in the church, and we were able to save some flower budget on the fact that the Easter lilies from Easter were still decorating the altar. I wore a favorite necklace from my friend that was a gift to wear on my wedding day as something old, diamond earrings and bracelet from my grandmother as something new, my mother's veil as something borrowed, and my "Bride" Torrid underwear as something light blue. The day started with all the girls in my procession meeting at the salon to get hair/makeup done. Then we had the wedding mid-morning. Afterward we had a low-key reception at a log cabin resort that had beautiful grounds with trees and a small pond. We had a lunch for everyone, a beautiful cake, a champagne toast, the throwing of the bouquet, and opened presents. Around mid-afternoon, we took off to head on our honeymoon to Seattle and spent the evening at a suite with an in-room sauna after driving the first part of our 2-day trip to Seattle.
Anything else you want to add.
We now live in Portland, Oregon with 4 beautiful children and celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary this year.
