A new Wedding VUE is here! Our blog series celebrating love, weddings, and some amazing brides-to-be is back. We are excited to have Emily sharing her upcoming woodsy wedding and what it feels like to postpone your 2020 date. Emily Belloma is a blogger and marketer who has a passion for finding great deals and sharing them. She is recently engaged and calls Des Moines, Iowa, home. Emily writes an affordable fashion and lifestyle blog to show that looking great doesn't have to break the bank.
Please introduce yourself and tell us more about you and your fiancé?
My name is Emily and I am marrying Luke MacDonald in 2021. We live in Des Moines and have two fur babies, our black lab, Remi, and our bengal, Kimber. We met at Iowa State University through mutual friends. Luke finally convinced me to go out with him after calling it a "business meeting" rather than a date. It seems crazy that I was so hesitant to date him at first now! Luke told me he knew I was the woman he was going to marry only after a few short weeks of dating. Some of our favorite activities to do together are boating and going for drives in Luke's Jeep.
Tell us about your wedding. Have you started planning? And if so, how would you describe your wedding style?
Our original wedding date was August 1, 2020. We were engaged on December 7, 2019 and didn't want to have a long engagement. However, we had to postpone our wedding due to Covid-19. We didn't feel like our wedding would be what we want it to be with all the new safety restrictions. We are hoping to have the wedding in August of 2021 now. We are glad that we postponed and I'm happy that I have more time to plan.
Our wedding will be taking place at a vineyard. I really wanted a lodge or woodsy themed wedding, however those locations aren't too easy to find in Iowa. So we decided to have our engagement photos taken in the woods. Luke and I love being outdoors so this seemed like a good representation of us. Our colors are burgundy, blush and navy.
What elements will you add to ensure that the wedding is authentically true to yourself and your relationship?
To stay true to our original vision of having a woodsy wedding I plan to keep natural elements throughout the decor. Maybe that will be something as simple as wood blocks as part of the centerpiece or something more. I still have a lot of time to plan, so I'm not stressing too much over these details just yet.
One thing that is really important to us is that we do not want to go overboard on spending with our wedding. We really considered having a small, intimate wedding with just immediate family in attendance. However, after talking with some couples one thought really stood out to us about a wedding, I was told that your wedding is one of the only chances in your life where you can have everyone you love in one room. Family is very important to us (and we have a big family) so we decided that we wanted to have the big wedding so we can all be together and celebrate. However, we also recognize that this is just one day and we are not willing to spend our life savings on one day. We would much rather put our money toward a new house with a backyard for our dog.
Are you doing anything different or out of the ordinary?
My mom is making our wedding cake! My mom used to decorate cakes as a side business when I was younger. I always had an awesome birthday cake! Some people think it sounds a bit crazy for my mom to make our wedding cake, but she's always wanted to do it and I think it will be special. It will also save us quite a bit of money.
If your proposal was made into a movie, what do you think the name of the movie would be?
If a movie was named after our proposal, I would call it "This is For Real." The way I was proposed to was quite a surprise! It was December 7 and we were spending the night at my mom's house. She started to tease Luke about how she didn't know if he was ever going to give me a ring, but we considered us all to be family anyway. I was sitting in a chair in my comfy Christmas jammies, completely oblivious to what was happening, just watching TV. All of a sudden I turned around and Luke was on his knee and I saw the ring of my dreams. He asked me to marry him and all I could say was, "Is this for real?!" I was in complete shock, but of course I said yes! I was so happy that I ugly cried, I couldn't believe it was "for real." And I will also never get rid of those silly Christmas pajamas I was wearing.
Cheers to Emily and Luke! And thank you for sharing your upcoming wedding with us. You can find Emily on Instagram: @emilyjobelloma and definitely check out her blog https://emilybelloma.com/
Stay tuned for our next Wedding VUE on October 2.