Hello friends and welcome to 2023!
We rang in the new year with friends and some awesome guests and now we’re already into February. Holy smokes.
February is special to us because it’s the month we got married, so we are declaring Feb 2023 as the “The Month of Love!” as the marketing team talked about what we wanted to do for Valentine’s promos, Chuck and I thought it would be fun to do special offers for the whole month of February, not just Valentine’s Day weekend. See what we came up with for your romantic Texas escape.
A backward and fun relationship story
Chuck and I have *the* most backward and fun relationship story. First, he loves to tell people how he was dating me for three months before I was dating him. That’s actually pretty accurate … but I did finally figure out how awesome he was and on May 30, 2019, we went on our first date, and on July 3 of that year (yes, barely a month later!) we put a deposit on a venue for Feb 12, 2020. We also started talking with my long-time jeweler friend Roger Benatar about rings and he and Chuck started collaborating. They did finally involve me (I mean, this WAS the most important piece of jewelry I was ever going to get, and I’d be waiting 51 years for it so I really wanted them to get it right !).
To the backward part … we were set for February and we had a plan: the plan was, to invite everyone to an engagement party and get married at the party as a surprise. But then in September, we helped a friend move across the country and when we got home we were ready to start a life together. I suggested we just get married now, to which Chuck asks, “But what about February?” I told him we could still do February, just as planned, and we’d only tell a handful of people about our hurry-up wedding. He agreed, and a good friend of ours got ordained by the power of the internet and married us in our backyard on Oct 25, 2019. Only our friends Gary (who married us) and his wife Twyla, my long-time pal Laura, and my mom were in attendance. Our wedding dinner was Thai food which Laura brought from our favorite place, and then we all convened in the living room to watch The World Series. It was very formal (Chuck wore his best Verlander jersey!).
The ring arrives from the jeweler
In early November, the ring arrived. I told Chuck I didn’t want to see it until he gave it to me, and then he left it on his desk at home for what had to be the two longest weeks ever before he finally took it to the safety deposit box. It was REALLY hard not to go in there and sneak a peek !! On November 21, 2019, Chuck was attending my weekly networking meeting and surprised everyone – including me – by getting down on one knee. And PS, he didn’t ask … he gave a little speech and at the end announced, “And I want to marry you.” Upon seeing the video his sister Char says, “You didn’t ask her!” Despite this, we did get married – as a surprise to everyone attending, as planned – on February 12, 2020.
How we selected our venue
The venue was especially important to us because of the surprise – we didn’t want people to show up and figure out what they were really there for, so we were fortunate that our awesome wedding guys recommended a +100-year old firehouse that had two levels … we were set for the party downstairs, and set for the wedding upstairs. Thirty minutes into the party, Chuck took to the stairs to thank everyone, and announce that they’d all been duped and that they were really here to attend our wedding, which was taking place in 15 minutes. Probably like most weddings, everything didn’t go as planned but at the end of the day, we pulled off the surprise, had a great party with our family and friends, and got married for real. Yay!
I wish we’d known about our East Texas Bed & Breakfast in 2019 and 2020. It’s so beautiful here, and we both love B & Bs, so this is exactly the type of place Chuck would have loved to plan our engagement, and it would have been a great setting for our wedding. We’d love to help you make our Jasper Texas Bed & Breakfast the backdrop for your romantic proposal or wedding. Come visit us in February during our “Month of Love” and take advantage of some awesome special offers to check out this lovely property and see if it’s just right for your proposal or wedding plans.
We can’t wait to see you!
Mikelyn & Chuck
