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Crystal & Mike's Wedding

The happy event took place 351 days ago

We both had a blast. Thanks to everyone who attended, and gave their best wishes. Feel free to peruse albums below.

 

Honeymoon In Fiji

The Honeymoon
What an amazing place Fiji is. Beautiful, calm, full of friendly people. Please look at some of our photos

 

Wedding and Reception

The Wedding and Reception

The wedding was truly a fantastic celebration of life, love, and friendship as we danced the night away at the Kellogg Center. Check out some of our favorite photos from the day. We have more photos available, so if you'd like to see them, let us know.

 

Engagement Portraits

Engagement Portrait

Well with a measley 77 days to go, Crystal and Mike finally decide to sit for an engagement portrait. One of Crystal's favorites appears to the left.

 

The Reception

For the reception, we selected the Kellogg Center, on the West end of campus. The Center's Lincoln Room has lovely views of the campus and connects to a hotel. One of the smaller rooms, it will create a more intimate setting, (and keep our guest list from getting too out of control.)

 

The Chapel

The MSU Alumni Chapel will be the site of our wedding. We both realized early on that we would like to get married at Michigan State, "where it all started". Not far from here was where we met, had our first date, our first kiss, and later--decided we loved each other.

Officiating will be Pastor Gerald Ferguson, one of the Pastors at Trinity Lutheran Church in Crystal's hometown of Midland. A Lansing-area native, Pastor Ferguson also officiated at Crystal's brother Nick's wedding.

 

The Proposal

I always wanted to propose to ask Crystal to marry me on my birthday. I figured there could be no better birthday gift than the woman you love agreeing to spend the rest of her life with me. Though I always had the day in mind, I was at a loss for the venue.

As with most things, the solution presented itself. Crystal's younger brother Nick was in town (from California) for the Christmas holiday in 2007. As he had just returned from his third deployment from the US Marine Corps, everyone (and by this I mean 30+ people) showed up for Christmas dinner at Crystal's ancestral home in Midland, MI. Since Nick was leaving on the 28^th, it looked at though I would be in Midland to pop the question.

I had decided to ask Crystal to marry me by the "renowned" Midland Tridge (think of a bridge that connects 3 banks of 2 intersecting rivers) the morning of my birthday, then (assuming she said yes) tell her mom (who was local) and then make the 2+ hour drive to my hometown to share the happy news with both of my parents.

By the morning of the 28^th, however, trouble struck. An incredible snowstorm was on its way. There would be no way to ask the question on the 29^th (my birthday) and then trek through the ridiculious tundra, etc. to finish notifying the parents. It had to be done a day early. No one would remember right? (well I should have thought of that before I decided to immortalize it in a website).

With the help of my accompice (Crystal's sister), I set my plan into motion. I packed a thermos full of hot chocolate, my little blue box, a camera and borrowed iPod speakers (thanks dad) into my man bag, and told Crystal that I wanted to go to the Tridge to build a snowman. (Truth be told, I really wanted to build that snow man.)

We get out there, and the blizzard began. It was cold, but I couldn't feel it. We built a huge snowman (about 4 1/2 inches tall) and the thing just fell apart. I remember Crystal kicking the thing in good-humored frustration. I was having fun, it wasn't frustration. She took the camera and wanted to take a picture of the sorry snowman. I positioned myself behind her, and fumbeled in my pocket as I started down on one knee. She quickly turned--I quickly stood--and wanted to show me the picture. I don't remember what I said, but it was something to the effect of, "please take another, better picture." This time, I had enough time to get the box out, my knee moist. She turned around, and then took 2 steps back (3 would have landed her in the ditch behind her) put her hand to her mouth as I asked, "will you marry me?" She was quiet for a little while, her eyes teared up, and she nodded yes.

Nothing much more to my engagement story than that. Crystal was very interested in taking this picture of me on bended knee. Cold, nervous, shivering hands unwrapped the box, and I slid the ring on her finger. We enjoyed hot chocolate while I played the song we agreed long ago would be our first dance under a nearby canopy.

I guess I should add that the weather was so bad that we weren't able to get to Sterling Heights that night after all. We woke up on my birthday, and drove down after the plows had their chance to clear a path. One more drive in a relationship of drives, but the first one as a fiance.