Bride-to-be Blogger Alyse: Introduction!

New Philadelphia Wedding bridal blogger Alyse, and her fiance Kevin at a friend's wedding last summer.

Hello! I am so excited to start this wedding planning journey and let you in on all the details as a bride-to-be blogger!

I know that I just said “start” in that first sentence, but let’s be honest with each other from the beginning: Wedding planning after the proposal is like drinking on your 21st birthday — you can stop pretending like you haven’t been doing it for years. What was once done with secret blog visits and fake wedding-site memberships can now be done with reckless abandon, legally. But after that first rush, you find out quickly that moderation is key. I’ll keep that in mind as I plan my wedding, but I can’t promise anything.

A bit about me: I am a Philly suburbs native and a Penn State and Penn Law alum. After passing the bar last summer, I started my career as a lawyer in New York City. My fiance, Kevin, is also a Philly suburbs native and Penn State grad. He worked in finance in Philly and just recently made the move to NYC. We got engaged on April 29th (more on that to come in future posts!) and are planning a July 2012 wedding in Philly.

We actually met in first grade — yes, you read that correctly. Three years later, Kevin and I made things official with a “do you like me? yes/no” note and decided to take things to the next level by kissing behind the gym during recess. This ended with notes being sent home to our parents for “engaging in inappropriate behavior on the schoolyard.”

Our relationship couldn’t handle that high drama, so we separated for a few years. The rest of our youth was normal and we were mostly friends, punctuated with a few Alyse-and-Kevin moments. We reconnected senior year of high school before we both left for Penn State. It wasn’t always smooth sailing, but I’ve always thought that a few battle wounds just serve to make your story more believable.

And here we are, planning our wedding, twenty years after we first met, although it never feels that way. Admittedly, I thought about the details of an eventual wedding plenty before getting engaged, but actually planning is a completely different feeling . . . like ordering your first drink at a bar without anyone questioning your age. You knew this day would come, but you still can’t believe it’s actually here.

I hope you’ll follow along with me as I plan my Philly wedding! I’m looking forward sharing in this experience with all of you, and hearing your advice and suggestions along the way.

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