Posts Tagged ‘Bride of the Week’

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Bride of the Week: Rose Rizzo

Wednesday, June 6th, 2012

The Wedding Guide would like to congratulate Wedding Guide bride Rose Rizzo on her recent engagement.

 

Out of Despair, Love Awaited

 

When I began working a local restaurant while finishing college in San Antonio, I had absolutely no idea that I would be meeting my future.

At the time, I was already in “dead-end marriage,” and my world was a bit on the crazy side. Amongst school, my daughter and trying to find who I was, each day was a struggle.

Towards the middle of the year I was fighting with, internally, about turning thirty, having my daughter hospitalized for a short period for her asthma, and trying to figure out how to end my three-year marriage.

My “restaurant family” and work was my only stability, and an hourly escape from my reality. One of those individuals who helped me escape from my cares, if even momentarily, was my now fiancé Adam Valdez.

Our restaurant was going up against our sister restaurant in a Thanksgiving touch football game. So this set off our after hours practices where I began to really get to know Adam, and not realizing it just yet, was falling head over heels.

The holiday game came, and I found myself not wanting to go be with my husband. Then came the after work casual hangouts with Adam, a few of our other co-workers and me. Week after week I got to dive into his head and personality more and more and could not get him out of my thoughts.

Soon after my marriage ended, I made my moves on Adam.  He was skeptical at first, and tried to fight me off, but after a whirlwind year of major ups and down, he proposed to me in our apartment that we shared. He hid my ring in a pair of baby slippers that were meant for our unborn son.

He is my absolute best friend, partner and biggest supporter. He is tough on me and pushes me to succeed, while being there to comfort me when I need him.

We do everything together, from recreational activities to shopping (I got lucky with a man who actually like to go with me). I can’t wait to get home to be with him, and seeing him as a father has made me even more in love with him. We have so much passion for each other, and I am dreaming of the day we get to become husband and wife.

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Bride of the Week: Tiffany Hufham

Monday, May 14th, 2012

The Wedding Guide would like to congratulate Wedding Guide bride Tiffany Hufham on her recent engagement.

 

The Language of Love

 

Aleksei Belousov and I (Tiffany Hufham) met when I stepped of the plane in Berlin Germany, in September of 2010. He and his brother-in-law had been sent by the school I was to attend to pick my friend Ray and I up form the airport. We were both foreign exchange students. He was from Kyrgyzstan and spoke Russian and I was from the United States speaking only English.

 

For the first few months we were just friends. I was learning German in the beginner classes and he was learning German in the intermediate classes. The first few months of our friendship and relationship were based on everyone translating everything for us. It was frustrating at times but I was able to pick up the language rather quickly and by November we could have small personal conversations.

 

Alex had become roommates with Ray and Ray was my best friend so we ended up spending a lot of time together. Alex and I would stay up till late at night playing card games or watching The Simpsons in English with Russian subtitles.

 

On November 21st Alex and I decided to take our friendship to the next level and we started dating. We were both still working on our German so sometimes we would have to go to the word dictionaries, and every once in a while we had to rely on Google Translate.

 

As time went on we grew to understand each other better and in a way found a language of our own based on the German language. We would make mistakes but we could understand each other and that was what mattered. The “language” we had created had made it so that I could understand Alex better than could the native German speakers, and he could understand me better.

 

During the ten months that I was there we went to a number of countries together and we spent our first Valentine’s Day in Paris, New Year’s Eve in Berlin, and Christmas in Prague. We tried all sorts of different foods and met tons of people.

 

In June my time in Germany was up and I had to fly back to the states to finish my schooling. Alex and I stayed together for a total of nine months. In September, right before I was to start school again, he ended it. I was completely devastated. He had been my first love and I knew no one was going to compare. So I prayed. I prayed over and over again that God would completely remove my love for Alex. However, He never did and my fears had come true. No one that I met had come even close to comparing to Alex.

 

During this time Alex had started the process of obtaining refugee status to the United States. In January of 2011 he flew into California to live. In February we started talking again and in March, over my spring break, we got back together. However, it was not easy. He was living in California and I was going to school in Washington State. So for the next four months we only talked over Skype and the phone, just like we had done after I flew back to the states.

 

In June I decided to move to California, where he was, and get into school there. I was in California from June until October when I realized that there was no way I was going to be able to get into the nursing program over there. My parents had just moved to Austin Texas to start a church and so Alex and I decided to move out to Texas together so I could try to get into school there. In October we loaded what little we had into our two vehicles and drove to a city we had never been to.

 

When we agreed to move to Texas, Alex decided he wanted to see the White Sands National Monument, which is in New Mexico. So after making it to Las Cruces, on the second day of our trip we decided to stop and go see the white sands. It was there as the sun was setting that he asked me to marry him by writing in the sand “Willst du mit mir heiraten?” (Will you marry me? in German). Naturally, I said yes. After spending another day in Las Cruces and visiting the White Sands one more time we finally made it to Austin. It was five days and almost 1,800 miles later. We got to Austin, found jobs and an apartment and once things had settled down some we decided to get married on March 24, 2013.

 

It is now April 2012. We have a little less than a year to plan the wedding. Alex and I still talk mostly in German but he is learning English pretty well and would be able to survive without me now. I, on the other hand, am learning Russian very slowly. But through everything we are happier than ever and we fall in love all over again every day.

 

We were on opposite sides of the world, speaking two completely different languages (the letters are not even the same) and somehow we still found each other. I honestly believe that God had us planned for each other and for Him the oceans and language barriers were nothing.

 

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Bride of the Week: Kristi Lewis

Saturday, May 5th, 2012

The Wedding Guide would like to congratulate Wedding Guide bride Kristi Lewis on her recent engagement.

 

Love Found on the Playground

 

I remember the first time I saw Andres Lavin like it was only yesterday.  It was the summer going into our 5th grade year.  I was standing in the doorway of the gym and he was walking across the playground in my direction. We spoke a few times that summer but that was about it.

 

For over 18 years we lived in the same small town but never really got to know each other.  One day while at work I went to the cafeteria to get some ice and there he was standing in front of me, so handsome.  I couldn’t believe my eyes! We smiled and said hello. When I went back to work I could not stop thinking about him .  Later I added him on facebook.  I tried to send him a message so many times but I was so nervous, I just couldn’t do it.

 

Let’s fast forward a little to December of 2011.  Our company held its annual Christmas party on Dec 31st  and I was supposed to go with one of my best guy friends, but I was stood up at the last minute.  I almost didn’t go but decided that I would anyway.  After the party I went out to a local bar with some of my friends.  We were all having a great time and out of the blue there he was again walking towards me.  I had this flashback of the very first time I saw him.  I froze in my own little world.  Again, we just smiled but never spoke.

 

Two days later I was at work and I got a Facebook notification on my phone that I had a new message.  It was from him. I could not open that message fast enough.  ”Hey how is your day going?”  That is all it took and from that moment on we haven’t stopped talking.

 

I told him I remember seeing him that summer and he thought I was lying.  He couldn’t remember me and I couldn’t forget him.  He is the most amazing man I have ever met.  He goes out of his way to make me smile.  No matter what we are doing we are always laughing and having the best time.  He has gone from a single man going out with his friends almost every night to having a fiancé and two kids, going to birthday parties and baseball practice every night.  I could not ask for a better man to share the rest of my life with.  I believe that everything happens for a reason and had my friend shown up that night I may not have gone out to the bar after and I may never have met the man of my dreams.

 

For so many years I would relive that moment that I saw him walking across the playground.  I didn’t understand why then, but now I know it is because he is my dream come true.  I finally have my happily ever after!  And it is better than anything I could have ever imagined.  We plan to marry Feb 24, 2013 on his grandparents 76 wedding anniversary.

 

 

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Bride of the Week: Nicole Thomas

Monday, April 16th, 2012

The Wedding Guide would like to congratulate Wedding Guide bride Nicole Thomas on her recent engagement.

It Was All in the Timing

Twelve years ago I, Nicole Thomas, met a boy in high school, Lawrence Lewis, who I would have never thought would have been the love of my life. If you let him tell the story, “I dissed him.”

I didn’t want to give him the time of day. The way I saw it was that I was currently in a relationship and was focusing on my schoolwork and sports.  As time passed, we ran into each other several times in various places.  He was able to get my phone number and we talked several times, but it didn’t go anywhere.  I was in school in Cleveland and he was in Houston.  How would that ever work anyway?

We both moved back to San Antonio and lived our separate lives. We no longer had each other’s numbers and weren’t even Facebook friends (Your friendship means nothing unless you are on Facebook right?).

One night I had to sing with my choir at a church service.  To me, it would be business as usual.  Sing, dance, hear the Word and go home happy.  On his side, he was planning to go out and have a good time at the club.  He had recently moved back to San Antonio and wanted to see what the club scene was like again.  His mother told him he should go to church because he had not visited his uncle’s church since he had been back.  Reluctantly he went.  After I sang and came back down I realized that it was Lawrence and he realized that it was me.

We briefly talked after the church service. I listened while he told me how “San Antonio didn’t really have any women to offer.”  I thought, hey how dare you say that.  I’m a San Antonio woman, but I listened instead. We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.

That night I received a call from a friend saying, “Girl, you’ll never guess who asked for your number?”  I knew and said, “Who Lawrence?”  She said yeah how did you know. I gave her the okay to give him my number and Lawrence and I talked that night until about 5am and every night thereafter.

From the moment we began our conversation we both knew we were made for each other. The timing was perfect.  Before, in high school, the timing wasn’t right.  Now it was.  Not a day has gone by that Lawrence has not told me how much I mean to him.  He writes it on my dishes, he leaves me notes, and he publicly declares it everywhere.  It used to be embarrassing until I realized that VERY FEW people do that, and that I had a one in million type of guy.

On Valentine’s Day this year, my life changed.  I had no idea, but Lawrence came to my job.  I am a school teacher and coach at a middle school.  I was sitting in the gym and the principal came on over the PA system.  He said, “Everybody listen up.  I have a very special announcement.  I need everyone to hear, EVERYONE!  Quiet down.”  He continued with, I will give everyone a second to quiet down because this is very important.  In my mind, I was thinking that the kids were getting in trouble for throwing cupcakes or something.  My co-worker said, “I mean, is it President Obama or what?”  Then I heard a very familiar voice say, “Happy Valentine’s Day everyone.  This message is for Coach Thomas. Since the first day I met you I knew you were the one. I don’t know what your plans are for the rest of your life, but I hope I can be a part of them.  Will you marry me?”

The entire school was in an uproar.  Students and teachers alike ran out of their classrooms clapping and cheering and taking pictures. They brought me a walkie talkie to respond and of course I said yes. Now two will become one in September of this year (2012).

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Bride of the Week: Megan Duncan

Monday, March 26th, 2012

The Wedding Guide would like to congratulate Wedding Guide bride Megan Duncan on her recent wedding.

 

Patriotic Beginnings

The first time Jeffrey and I met, we were both deployed to the southern region of Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. We were both serving in the US Army, Jeff as a Combat Engineer, myself as a Combat Medic, and had already been in Afghanistan for ten months, and were winding down our tour and starting the journey home.

 

Being away from home, Facebook, the social networking site, had become one of the main lines of communication between us and our families and friends, and so, one day after work, I began my usual ritual of checking my emails, Facebook, etc.  On that particular day, I had received a ‘friend request’ from a guy named “Jeff Duncan,” who had over 30 mutual friends in common, which was strange to me, considering that I had absolutely no idea who he was. It was obvious that he worked with the same people I worked with, so after checking out his profile, I decided to approve his friend request, thinking that that was it.

 

The next day, after arriving back at the FOB (forward operating base), I headed towards to the dining facility to get some chow, and in the process of washing my hands, I literally bumped into someone. I noticed his name tape said “Duncan,” so out of the blue, I said, “Hey, you added me on Facebook.”  It was obvious that I had flustered him, and he had no idea what to say, but I was in a hurry, so I merely smiled and said, “I added you back,” and proceeded into the dining facility.

 

After a few unpredictable events, I ended up being assigned to Jeff’s platoon as their medic, and he was assigned as the driver of my vehicle, so essentially, we were forced to spend time with each other, but neither of us seemed to mind. In the last few weeks of our deployment, our platoon took a terrible hit, as we lost one of our brothers in arms, PFC Adam Dobereiner, may he rest in peace and because of that unfortunate event, Jeff and I bonded and helped each other through the rough time afterwards. We spent countless hours simply talking to each other, and it was apparent that we had a mutual interest in one another, and we decided to “date” each other while we were on our journey home from Afghanistan, and were on our layover in Kyrgyzstan.

 

After a few weeks back in the States, it was obvious that Jeff and I didn’t want to live without each other, and on our three month anniversary, we got married in a court house. We are planning on having a bigger wedding to include our families on July 21, 2014, when he returns from his next tour in Afghanistan.

 

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Bride of the Week: Paula Kothmann

Friday, March 9th, 2012

The Wedding Guide would like to congratulate Wedding Guide bride Paula Kothmann on her engagement!

My Wild Ride with a Good Guy

Preston and I met in April 2010 at a Symphony BATS party. The conversation turned to Austin favorite Toni Price, and I enthused how excited I was that she was back in town. Preston invited me to see her the following Tuesday Hippy Hour at the Continental Club (a change of pace from our first symphony-themed encounter). We met before the show at the San Jose, and I could already tell that I really liked this guy, despite the fact that he asked my age on the first date. (I didn’t tell him.)

 

We took several trips that first year, including a visit to Colorado to meet Preston’s grandparents Bill and BJ, for Preston the epitome of a couple in love. On another trip, Preston’s ears survived a road trip to Marfa, where, away from all radio signals, we belted out country and rock tunes off key.

 

But the best trip was to Tamarindo, Costa Rica, to celebrate Preston’s birthday on the Pacific Coast. Away from the hustle and bustle of phones and Internet in our VRBO “casita,” we had the chance to really relax. We continued dating and took more trips, including to Sonoma with my daughter to celebrate her 21st birthday.

 

Last December, Preston surprised me with another trip to Costa Rica, to the same “casita.” The weather was incredible, and we enjoyed some surfing (okay, Preston surfed and I just road my board exclaiming “wheeee” the whole time). Our surf instructor told us about a rodeo, which we enjoyed with all the (very barracho) locals. After the rodeo, we, kids at heart, climbed aboard the “Tilt-a-Whirl,” where, while the ride spun us around, Preston asked me to be his wife.  (I later found out that the word for wife in Spanish, “esposa,” is slang for “handcuffs.”) I knew I was in for a wild ride of a life.

 

Last Sunday, Preston offered to stay overnight with my hospitalized aunt in San Antonio, without talking to me about it, to give my family a much-needed break. I joined him by her bedside, so proud of my fiancé, the newest member of our family. My aunt just beamed from her hospital bed and told us how happy she was for us.

 

In the cold hospital room, Preston insisted that I take the recliner while he hunched over a table in a tiny chair. I don’t think that I ever loved him more than seeing him sacrifice his comfort to help out a family that he’s just getting to know.

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Bride of the Week: Mirka Fetté

Friday, February 24th, 2012

“Distance is not for the fearful, it is for the bold. It’s for those who are willing to spend a lot of time alone in exchange for a little time with the one they love.”

– Unknown

The Wedding Guide would like to congratulate Wedding Guide bride Mirka Fetté on her engagement!

 

Mirka Fetté and Kjartan Døj met at Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany on Mirka’s birthday. They had each gone to Munich to attend a language school program, expecting to learn German to forward their respective careers, not to find an international romance. On paper, they have nothing in common. It seemed utterly impossible for an American student and a Danish engineer to form a lasting relationship based on a couple of weeks in Munich. On Kjartan’s last night in Munich he completely opened up to Mirka, suddenly this handsome but forgettable Dane became something much more. Kjartan flew back to Copenhagen, Denmark the next morning and it seemed like the end. After all, Mirka would return to America in a few months to start graduate school and he had a job, friends, and a whole life for him in Copenhagen.

 

The two kept in touch, how could they not? After time passed, they wanted to see each other again, so Kjartan flew Mirka up to Copenhagen for a long weekend. He planned everything: a tour of the new opera house, dinner, riding Icelandic horses, meeting his family, and sightseeing in the city. That one perfect weekend turned into a budding love. After her long weekend, Mirka returned to America and Kjartan stayed in Denmark. It seemed hopeless; they had only known each other for such a short amount of time and an international distance relationship seemed impossible at best.

 

They came to a crossroads, they needed to find a way to test their love or break it off. She had six months before she her program at UT started so she moved to Copenhagen for three months to find out if their love could last. After three years of visiting back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean their love, in fact, could last.

 

When she dropped everything and moved to Copenhagen to try their chances Kjartan told Mirka he would work anywhere in the world so she could follow her goals, he would be portable so she could pursue her career. On December 18, 2011 Kjartan proposed by the river in Princeton New Jersey, where Mirka is working on her PhD. Austin holds a special place in their hearts for nurturing their love and they will marry there this coming October 20, 2012.

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Bride of the Week: Marianne Zeinert

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

“Ancient lovers believed a kiss would literally unite their souls, because the spirit was said to be carried in one’s breath.”
-Eve Glicksman

The Wedding Guide would like to congratulate Wedding Guide bride Marianne Zeinert on her engagement!

Marianne Zeinert and Todd Schmidt met through mutual friends when Marianne was the maid-of-honor in a friend’s wedding and Todd was a groomsman. Todd and Marianne were the only singles in the group,  so they were always getting thrown together. Throughout the planning process the two spent a lot of time together. Marianne says, “Todd was very shy but I kept talking to him.”

At the bachelor/bachelorette party the two were paired up again. Marianne kept pulling Todd to the dance floor, and they ended up hitting it off. Even though they were in a long-distance relationship, by May 2011 the couple was in love.

On July 4, 2011, Todd proposed and Marianne said yes! The couple plans to marry on March 10, 2012.

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Bride of the Week: Taelyr Brieden

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

“I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Phillipians 4:13

The Wedding Guide would like to congratulate Wedding Guide bride Taelyr Brieden on her engagement!

Taelyr and Clay Coleman met through a mail order prescription mix-up in November of 2009. The pharmacy mistakenly mixed up Clay and Taelyr’s mothers’ medications and when Clay’s mother arranged to meet Tarlyr’s mother to exchange the medications, their children met as well. Clay and Taelyr were immediately attracted to one another and exchanged phone numbers.

After seven months of dating, Clay planned a special dinner for Taelyr with an even more special surprise. On the drive to dinner, Clay mentioned that he needed to drop off some medication to his mother. When they arrived at Clay’s mother’s house, Taelyr was surprised to find her mother there as well.

Clay’s mother handed the pill bottle to Taelyr and asked her to read the label to make sure it was the right bottle and there wasn’t another mix up. Taelyr looked at the bottle and read, “Taelyr N’Kol Brieden, I love you very much…WILL YOU MARRY ME?”

Clay got down on one knee and pulled out a ring. Taelyr said, “YES!” She said, “It was the perfect proposal. He asked my parents and invited my family to celebrate with us.”

The happy couple plan to marry on November 12, 2011.

 

 

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Bride of the Week: Suncerae Smith

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

“Ancient lovers believed a kiss would literally unite their souls, because the spirit was said to be carried in one’s breath.”
-Eve Glicksman

The Wedding Guide would like to congratulate Wedding Guide bride Suncerae Smith on her engagement!

Suncerae Smith and Josiah Spence developed a friendship during their junior year of high school. It was an unlikely pairing; Suncerae was quiet and studious,  while Josiah was a popular “bad” boy with black boots and a leather jacket. Their friendship turned into a relationship.

In 2010, with Suncerae nearing graduation with her PhD in chemistry, she thought Josiah would never be able to surprise her with an engagement because they had already been together so long and shared so much. She was wrong! Josiah surprised her completely, showing up unexpectedly in front of the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas while she was on a school conference trip. He proposed, she said “YES!”, and the fountains went off to the tune of Elvis’ Viva Las Vegas!

Suncerae and Josiah are planning to hold a vintage themed reception at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden on September 10, 2011.

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