📷: @ashleighlay
We love seeing all the creative ways people use letter boards for weddings and marriage announcements. One of our recent favorites was Ashleigh using her board to announce that she and Paul had eloped! We loved this announcement and were so happy for Ashleigh and Paul. We reached out to Ashleigh to get their full story.
To start off, tell us the story behind this photo.
We had been passively thinking about eloping for a few months. When we finally pulled the trigger, we had a month to plan. We decided to keep it a secret from everyone (besides our closest family and friends, of course; they would have hated us!). Since social media is life these days, we wanted to make the announcement on our social channels. We knew immediately that we wanted a Letterfolk board in our photos to make the announcement. The photo of Paul holding up the board was him being excited and acting silly, with me just trying look as cool as he did, hah. Everyone loved the board and the photos!
Tell us how you met and ended up getting married!
We awkwardly met at a wedding. Paul was an usher, and I was a bridesmaid. The bride and groom tried to set us up because we had similar interests, but we were against it, lol. We both were in all the wedding festivities (rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, wedding, reception) making eye contact, but never spoke a word to each other until we were leaving the reception. I introduced myself to him briefly/awkwardly, and we parted ways. I thought he was cute, but I never thought I would see him again. And a few days later he messaged me on Facebook. That was 6 years ago!
Who first brought up the idea of eloping? Did it take one of you convincing the other, or were you both immediately in?
We've known for a few years that we were going to marry each other, but we weren't in a hurry. In the past year, we really started thinking about getting engaged. I started getting nervous about when he was going to propose, if he'd pick out the right ring, how he was going to do it. So one day early this year, I asked him if we should just go to the courthouse (that way we could bypass the whole proposal). He didn't say yes or no. A few days later, I brought up the proposal and engagement ring topic, and he was like, "Wait, I thought you wanted to elope?" Then I was like, "Is that what you want to do?" And he was like, "Is that what you want to do?" ... and apparently it was what we both wanted to do.
What was your favorite part of the day you got married?
The photographs! Our photographer, Stacy Able, was fantastic and she seemed to grab every bit of goodness from the entire day, and now we have those moments digitized forever (cheeseball) -- all the color, the fun, the happiness, our friends, and our city. She instantly became a friend as we began sharing stories of travels. I couldn't be happier with our photos.
Another favorite part of it was that the whole event was small and chill. Afterwards, we got together with some of our close friends and had a quiet celebration filled with drink and food. What better way to finish it off?
What was the reaction of your friends and family?
Our families were both overjoyed about the entire thing, but also poking fun with some "About time!" comments. Paul's twin sister has been married for almost ten years, so that tended to bring on the question from his siblings: "No ring yet? what the heck?!"
Our friends and families have been very supportive about everything. They were involved in helping set up our backyard bash, which had our board featured on the photo table.
Lastly, we always like to ask: what is currently up on your letter board?
We're toting the board along with us as we road trip from Portland to Los Angeles!!
