Dan and Kristina were friends in high school after sharing multiple classes together. When Kristina moved away to Arizona State University, she liked some of Dan's tweets. He texted her saying he'd noticed, and the two started FaceTiming and texting. "With the three hour time difference sometimes Dan would be up until 6 a.m. FaceTiming me," Kristina explains. When they came home for the summer, the two started dating and survived three years of long-distance dating. Dan proposed to Kristina in a marina near her Dad's house in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. While walking their dog, Dan surprised Kristina with a dog bandanna asking if she would marry him. They shared some private time at the marina before going back and celebrating with Kristina's family!
We are obsessed with the gown Kristina chose for her traditional wedding dress! Even though she didn't find it until her third store and still needed it altered, it is a beautiful and perfect choice! "I knew I wanted a more traditional dress but with some sparkle," Kristina gushes. " The top part of my dress had a lace design with a little sparkle and beads. My train was very long and didn’t have much going on other than lace and some beading throughout. The entire back was also buttoned down. It was very beautiful." We think she couldn't have made a better choice!
"I already had an idea of what I wanted as I had been dreaming of my wedding since I was a little girl. I used Pinterest and Instagram as my main source of ideas," Kristina says. The vision Kristina had in mind was a classic and timeless wedding, down to the color scheme. They utilized sage green and blush pink to pull this look together along with the gold accents of their venue. Despite the rain, we love how the ceremony space reminds us of all the love-filled fairytales we grew up with!
What We Love
Clark Videography captured all the fun details of Dan and Kristina's day. From gifting their guests with personalized koozies featuring their sweet pit bull Indy to all the groomsmen dressing more casual than traditional to help Dan stand out, they incorporated plenty of personal elements to reflect their personalities and relationship. Kristina shares one special detail, "In one of the rooms during cocktail hour, I had pictures on the fireplace mantel of family that we had lost who couldn’t be there, and had our grandparents' wedding albums up to remember how special their marriages were."
Advice from the Couple
"I would say to plan all the big stuff such as vendors and venue quickly so that way you can focus on the little details leading up to the big day. We booked all the big things within a few weeks of being engaged. We got engaged right before Thanksgiving in 2021 and had most things booked by Christmas even though our wedding date wasn’t until 4/29/23," Dan and Kristina advise. "Mostly just don’t stress about the small stuff. You are marrying your best friend and nothing else truly matters. It started to drizzle when I walked down the aisle and we could hear thunder in the background even though it had been beautiful and sunny all day. It is a funny moment we can look back on and our ceremony was only 8 minutes, which the guests loved. I got to share this day with people that I have been friends with since elementary school (as did Dan) and it was so special. Saying I do and dancing the night away with friends and family is all that truly matters."
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