Anniversary Week - Wedding Memories

It has been two years. How is that possible? So much has happened and changed, yet they flew by. To celebrate our anniversary this week (tomorrow to be exact) I thought it would be fun to look back on the wedding and all the DIY goodness that happened. Everyday this week I will be posting about all the DIY work we did from the dress, to the showers, to the wedding itself.

I thought we'd start where it really all began... the engagement. So now we are going back more than three years. I am starting here because even part of that day was DIY - I made the dress I was wearing! Here are some pics of the dress, and the engagement, and our engagement story - I wrote it out for our wedding website a couple years ago.

T.J. and I met our freshman year of college at Western Michigan University. When T.J. joined his grandfather's fraternity and I followed in the footsteps of my sister and joined a sorority we had no idea we would find each other. My big sister in the sorority introduced me to T.J. in October, after only being at WMU for a month. We attended my formal together in November and another dance in December. T.J. and I went on our official first date over Christmas break and shortly after met each other's families. By January we were official (Facebook Official that is)!

We spent the next 3 years of our college careers as a couple. We did everything together. We even took a few of the same classes! On April 24th, 2009, the night before graduation T.J. planned a special date. We were to spend the night doing all of our favorite things in Kalamazoo, because we were about to move to Charleston, SC. We picked up my favorite kind of pizza, stopped at the Den for a den pop, and went to sit on "our bench" down by the Valley Pond. I brought my camera along because I love to document our lives, and T.J. said he wanted to take a picture of us in front of the pond. He skillfully set up the camera on the 10 second timer and when he ran out to join me in front of the pond he got down on one knee and pulled out the ring!

And I said Yes!!

Honestly, I had a feeling that this night was the night. Earlier that week T.J. had mentioned that we should do a special date on Friday, sort of a "goodbye to Western" kind of thing. That was the first time he had ever suggested we have a special date. So I was suspicious. I knew I wanted to wear something memorable that meant something to me. I made this dress in my apparel construction class at Western and I was super proud of it. That class pushed me to try things I might not have ever done on my own and has given me confidence to try new things ever since. This dress has a ton of buttonholes for example, and sleeve tabs and a crisp collar. It turned out to be a nice fit for the occasion.