Heather and Josef at Primavera Regency

How did you meet? 
We met on Tinder. Yep, we both swiped right and now here we are. I was intrigued by Josef’s photos and his bio that indicated literally nothing about him, so mysterious! Josef was clearly intrigued by my photo of taco abs and my bio gushing about wine and cats. After a few days of amazing Tinder conversation, Josef suggested that numbers should be exchanged and dinner and drinks should be had. Josef told me that we should meet up for sushi and that there was this really great place called Blue Wasabi in Madison. I felt that instantly it was a match made in Heaven and I would probably end up marrying him, because the way to my heart is definitely through Blue Wasabi. Later on he admitted that he used YELP and had never actually been there, but that’s okay because now he’s a regular.

Our first date was at the end of July 2016. Josef arrived before me and decided to stand outside to wait until I got there. I was a bit late because I needed to make a wine stop, because what’s Blue Wasabi without wine? When I got to the restaurant I stepped out of my car and saw an incredibly handsome and tall man standing outside playing on his phone. I got back into my car to drive home (just kidding!). I needed to double check myself in the mirror and to take a deep breath, because wow.

During dinner our conversation flowed so smoothly and was filled with a ton of laughter. After a few hours it was clear that we were not finished with our night, so we walked over to 54 Main to have a few drinks and laugh some more. If you know me then you know that I am not one to fall in love easily, commit to anything, or think about marriage but after that night I knew I was going to marry Josef. I even called my mom to tell her we were going to get married one day and now look at us.

How did you get engaged? 
It all happened on a Tuesday night in May, almost 9 months after meeting, during girls night when Josef handed me a brand new XBOX controller. I was super pumped because this controller you could use a headset with, and I could get all nerdy talking to friends while playing Halo. I couldn’t get the plastic off the batteries, and with Emily and Josef both staring at me it made me super self-conscious about how terrible I was at opening batteries. When I finally got the batteries out of the package, both Emily and Josef were pretty much like, “OH MY GOD, finally… now put the batteries in.” It was really weird how excited they were for me to put batteries in a controller. I took the back off of the controller and saw a ring taped there. My mind kind of went blank, but I remember pulling it out and looking at it, then looking at Emily and asking her what this was, and the next thing I know Josef was on a knee, asking me to marry him. I said, “Wait, you really want to marry me?” Then I started crying and he said a lot of words, but my tears were falling really loudly so I couldn’t hear what he was saying. Of COURSE I said, “YES!!!!!” Then I started playing Halo with my new controller.

Details of the day! 
Our colors were navy blue, rose gold, and blush. Our flowers were filled with green and beautiful pink peonies that matched our dresses perfectly. Our theme was romantic and fairy tale like.. we had shot glasses as our favors because tequila bonds us. I made our centerpieces to be simple and romantic – I had our florist fill two vases with baby’s breath and I put rose gold wrappers around tealights, laid out pink petals, and had a frame with a rose gold table number and a picture of us at certain ages (1-12). We had rose napkins, wine bottles at each table, and white table clothes. Our sweetheart table was filled with greenery and light colored flowers.

Why did you choose your venue? 
We chose our venue because of Michael, the man in charge. He was so incredibly awesome and right away we knew we wanted to get married there. The venue was absolutely gorgeous and outside was breathtaking. We loved that we could have a simple private romantic wedding outside and then a formal reception.

What was on your menu? 
Our wedding menu had lobster ravioli, chicken, prime rib, vegetables, pasta… everything you can honestly imagine. I can’t remember the exact food choices. Our cake was marble with raspberry mouse and a white fondant.

All about your gown! 
Simple, romantic, flowy. It was the one because I cried in it every time I tried it on – 5 times to be exact. It was such a romantic dress that had a low back, spaghetti straps, and it was a-line. It was ivory with light pink flowers throughout the lace. The minute I put it on everybody immediately begged me to wear that one.

What was your favorite moment? 
Seeing my husband for the first time. I was full of butterflies and I just couldn’t wait to hold him and kiss him. I couldn’t quit staring at him the entire night.

One detail you couldn’t live without? 
Our unplugged ceremony sign!

Did anything go wrong? 
Nope!

First dance song? 
First Time Ever I Saw Your Face – the Miley Cyrus version

Any advice for future brides? 
Worry only about yourself and your future husband. We were so worried about hurting other people’s feelings that we ended up getting hurt during the wedding planning process .The night before the wedding we both vowed to wake up and do what we wanted during the day. I honestly think that’s why we had absolutely NO issues on the day of the wedding. Everything went so smooth because we only cared about ourselves and our happiness.

Honeymoon location?
We went to Greece one month after our wedding because we wanted to soak in the life of being newlyweds before traveling for two weeks. We are Island hopping.