Love and Lobster Coastal New England Weddings

We’re tickled to share that our designer Jen, whose beautiful illustrations and inspiration boards you have been enjoying on Love & Lobster, is recently engaged!! A transplant from Brooklyn navigating unfamiliar territory planning a wedding in New England, we’re going to regularly follow her journey here as she goes from saying Yes to I Do!

The winter holidays have always been my favorite time of year, and now I can add another reason to the list. From now on, Christmas Eve will always be the night Matt popped the question!

Matt and I were never formally introduced to each other. I had seen him a few times lingering in hallways and the communal kitchen of the office building where I worked in New York City. I admired him from afar while a few of my more social coworkers chatted him up for all the relationship details. The day the office was closing for Christmas break in 2007, my office mate (and new iPhone owner) snapped my photo and sped down the hall. He shortly returned to see my glowing red face and announced that he had given Matt my phone number and that he would be foolish not to call me.

Of course in this digital age, the text Matt sent me later that evening had me giddy for days. We met for coffee the day we both returned to work after the holidays and went on a more formal date the following night. Our relationship transformed from strangers in the hall to furtively dating (true story, even the New York Times wrote about it here).

I eventually left my basement studio apartment and moved in to his 1 bedroom apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. We took the subway together to our joint office building, had the occasional coffee break in the afternoon, and took the subway home at night. We never got tired of each other, but we did eventually grow tired of our New York way of life. So this past summer, we packed up the house, the dog and our entire lives and moved to Maine!

Which brings me to the proposal. We always take time to visit both of our families during the holidays. This year Matt’s family in Syracuse, New York, was first on our driving adventure. Matt and I have made it a point while we are there to visit “Lights on the Lake,”  a drive through extravaganza of holiday lights and music. When we drove through the final sparkling archway, Matt pulled out a sparkling surprise of his own. I was absolutely surprised. My body froze up a bit and aside from saying “Yes!” I couldn’t get much else out. After a few looks of concern from my new fiancé and a giant bear hug I was able to speak again.

We were both so excited to tell his family when we arrived back to their home. They had no idea that the FedEx box they had signed for the day before contained the ring that now adorned my hand (thanks to some string from his mother it was now fitting a little more snugly). We decided that we would tell my family when we arrived in Delaware a few days later. My younger sisters gave me a few tips on how to show my ring off with coy hand gestures and decided that I should have a candy bar at the reception. I think they have been watching too many episodes of My Fair Wedding with David Tutera.

So now I am engaged and about to embark on planning a wedding here in my new home of Maine. What now? It’s off to the bookstore to pick up a few wedding planning books to help me in my quest of where to start.