Make a Smilebox photobook

In June I was very lucky to get the opportunity to create the flowers for the Dan and Lis Ernst wedding. The entire family was a joy to work with! I asked Lis to send a little bit about her wedding to share with you all. Here is what she had to say! Enjoy the storybook!

Dan and I met in Junior high and became great friends. In high school be continued to be best friends. We started dating our sophomore year of high school and have been together ever since for 7 years. We both attened the University of Iowa he is now an engineer and I am a teacher. We got engaged on November 25, 2005, right after Thanksgiving so we could be around both our families. That day Dan and I went to a movie, after the movie we were just driving around and he made a comment about the fish at eagle point park, wondering if they were still there over the winter. So of course I became curious as well, so we drove up to the park. On the way we stopped to get a cappuccino from the gas station becasue I was cold. When we got up to the park we walked down by the fish pond. There were no fish. At this time I sensed that something was going on, all the sudden he gets down on his knee. At this point I chuck my cappuccino, because I know what is coming. He says some nice words and asks me to marry him, I am crying and of course say yes, and say "what a rock!" you could say I was excited. Of course he asked permission first. We had a long engagement of 2 1/2 years. We liked it that way because we wanted to wait until we were both finished with school, and we needed time to make up our mindes of that we wanted. With a lot of help from both our parents and my sister the maid of honor we started generating ideas. Our wedding party was easy to choose because we had a tight group of friends and very close family. For the wedding we decided on the colors of pink and black. I wanted a lot of color in the wedding from the girls dresses to the flowers on the tables. We also knew we wanted something very unique, so we decided on flowers that were very fresh and garden like, no roses! I also wanted the guests to walk into the reception hall and the first thing they saw was the large center pieces. For those I chose to incorporate sticks. When I told all my bridesmaids I was doing this they thought I was crazy, they thought sticks! What! I invisioned curly stickes with flowers hanging and also lanterns. I wanted it to look like an outside garden. I also had large pink paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling to make the room seem more warm. I chose to have orchards as the main flower because they are so beautiful and they were the right color. They ended up turning out wonderful. The day of the wedding was amazing, we had a beautiful day, maybe a bit hot, but no rain so I can't complain! We we very untraditional becasue we had all our pictures done before the ceremony. I would recommend it though because it took a lot of the pressure off the day. Also it left time to celebrate after the ceremony instead of taking all the pictures. Our ceremony was at 1:30 so the morning went very fast. I cried all the way down the asle, and pretty much through out mass, what can I say I am a sap! After the ceremony we had a trolley pick us up at the church. For anyone who is still considering this, I would say it is a must. It was probably the highlight of the day, all our bridal party partying on a bus, it was great!!! We also took a few photos during this time mostly the wedding party up at eagle point park right were we got engaged. After that we needed to get to the reception at the Grand River Center, I was very excited and nervious because I had not seen how it all looked together. As we walked in I was amazed how everything looked. It was beautiful. The lights were dimed and the tables were lit by candle light, it was so wonderful, everything I had ever dreamed of. The meal was great, and so were the speeches. The dance was also one of the best parts, all our friends and family out there busting a move, it was great. My one problem I had that day was my busle would not hold. After about an hour of dancning and many people steping on the back by busle broke, and I had at least 10. The rest of the night consited of me dancing a few songs, then having to go and try to pin up my dress. It didn't work very well. Toward the end of the night I just decided to carry it and it worked a lot better. Overall it was a great day, that went far too fast.