Learning to Trust // My Proposal Story

December 8, 2012

We're packing up and getting ready to leave for Santa Barbara for the night to spend some time with my boyfriend's sister and her boyfriend. We have nice dinner plans with them so of course, that leaves me with one big question...

What should I wear?

Of course I mumble, "I don't have any clothes!!" Which, in girl terms, means I've worn everything I own once and don't want to re wear it. Naturally, I can't find anything I would like to wear, nothing is looking up to my standards, and I get into a bit of a bad mood.

My boyfriend offers to pick out a dress so he grabs one, packs it in my suitcase, and it's time to get on the road.

"I don't even want to go anymore!", I blurt out, still in a bad mood from the attire situation.

And as usual, he responds with, "Trust me. It's going to be fun!"

I grumpily walk to the car and we get on the road. He continues to tell me, "It will be so much fun - just trust me!" And my bad mood continues.

(I know, I'm seriously crazy when it comes to picking out clothes!)

We make our way up the 101, exit off of Kanan to go through the canyon and after about half an hour we make it to PCH. Frank makes a left turn and immediately I blurt out, "Wait, you're going the wrong way! Santa Barbara is North!"

Being the gullible girl that I am, he tells me that there is traffic that way so we're taking a different route. I still have no idea how I believed that, but I did.

After about another 10 minutes, we arrive at the Malibu Beach Inn (a hotel I've been saying I want to stay at for years) and he pulls up to the valet. Immediately, my bad mood is gone and I get the biggest smile on my face! He tells me that he decided to take me out of town for the weekend instead of going to dinner with his sister in Santa Barabara. And I am so excited that I finally get to stay at this hotel!

We have dinner plans in about an hour so I get ready and we sip on some cocktails as we watch some seals play around in the ocean, right in front of our balcony. Those little seals have got my attention and Frank goes to change the music on the ipad and grabs my hand...

He turns me around and there he is, on one knee, with the most gorgeous ring in a little black box and it's all a blur from there. I grab him and of course say, "YES!" without hesitation and he puts that sparkly diamond on my finger and the rest is history!

Moral of the Story: TRUST

From the time we were packing our bags, he told me to trust him and I didn't listen. We then got in the car and he told me to trust him, and I didn't listen.

But in relationships, trust is one of the most important qualities to learn. And I am just now beginning to make that work...because it's hard! But if you love him and he loves you, then he's not going to lead you in the wrong direction. And you need to tell yourself that each and every day.

So no matter what you are doing, or where you are in your lives together, trust is such an important quality not only for you to have in order to feel at ease, but to show your spouse that you trust him or her. There's nothing worse that feeling than your spouse is questioning your every move, so work on that trust each and every day instead of living in defensive mode all of the time.

I didn't trust my boyfriend, and he ended up proposing. How crazy is that??

You cannot live a full life without trust.

You cannot be spontaneous without trust.

And you cannot have a fulfilling, beautiful marriage without trust.

So no matter how hard it may be, trust is something that brings your relationship to the next level (literally, in our case) and will allow you to live that fairytale marriage you are looking for.

malibu wedding proposal
malibu wedding proposal
malibu proposal
malibu proposal

Do you trust your spouse's every word and every move? If not, how are you working on getting there in your relationship?

Large Bridal Party = Bad Idea

I constantly find myself writing articles for all of you that are the exact opposite of what I did for my own wedding...I had a million and one people come to try on dresses with me, I didn't exactly create a budget breakdown from the start of planning, and I had a huge bridal party.

Do what I say, and not as I do ;)

I had eight bridesmaids in my bridal party and while I wouldn't have had it any other way because each of those girls is near and dear to my heart, I urge you to keep your bridal party as small as possible.

large bridal party is a bad idea

I have three sisters so I would have had to cut out every friend to keep it small, so I understand that it can't always be done, but do your best to keep it as small as you can. Deal?

Everyone always says it, but I've never really seen many reasons out there why a large bridal party is a bad idea...and so, I'll teach you today what I've learned from experience.

 

Planning Made Difficult

What may seem like an easy bachelorette party plan, becomes a whole different ball game as soon as you begin adding more girls into the mix. Everyone has their own idea of what should take place and let's be real, it is just hard to plan a trip for a lot of people! Collecting money from everyone, putting a large amount of money on a single credit card, and even getting a taxi ride is more difficult with more people.

TIP: If you want to go big, I suggest having each girl plan one part of the trip so that everyone can be involved and feel included in planning your last fling!

 

large bridal party is a bad idea

The Potential for Disaster

More girls = more drama. That's all I'm going to say about that :)


Bridal Stress

You want each and every bridesmaid to be included, but the more opinions you have coming your way, the more stressed out you will be as a bride. More ideas = more stress. So keeping it smaller will help you avoid that altogether.


Cost

The bigger the bridal party, the higher the cost. There is hair and makeup and dresses and shoes, jewelry, gifts, a hotel for the night before, a rehearsal dinner, and the list goes on. Whether or not your girls are paying their own way or not, there are costs that will directly impact you such as the rehearsal dinner and your bridesmaid gifts. And it all adds up!


Less Is More

You know, I hear this saying all of the time but this is really the first time I've agreed. The less bridesmaids you have, the more you can spoil them! You can pay for more so they don't have to or even give them better gifts! Because it doesn't get much better than spoiling your best girl friends :)


Now we want to hear from you!

How many bridesmaids are you having/did you have on your wedding day? And if you could go back in time, would you change that number?

DIY Wedding Ideas // Our Favorites

If you’ve been following us here at The Overwhelmed Bride, you know that we’re a fan of DIY wedding projects but we know that in reality, some things are better left to the professionals. Although this is the case, there are a lot of DIY ideas that can help personalize your wedding, at a low cost and with little hassle. Below are a few projects that we love!

OnceWed

OnceWed

Jenny Ebert Photography

Jenny Ebert Photography

Bridal Guide

Bridal Guide

The Knot

The Knot

Style Me Pretty

Style Me Pretty