Alyssia and Crysania planned their entire Kansas wedding day from their home in New York City. Choosing wedding vendors who they’d never met, crossing their fingers it would all come together. Their DIY wedding did come together in the day or two before the date thanks to their incredibly supportive friends and family.
Who are Alyssia & Crys?
A & C: We’re best friends, so we hang out 24/7 at coffee shops, chilling at the park, getting on each other’s nerves, and visiting NYC on weekends, when we can, since we’ve only been here for a year and a half. But we also love lazy weekends in bed, watching movies, and being comfortable.
We love traveling and we’ve recently just started traveling internationally together. We were able to begin 2019 with a trip to Italy and ended the year by going to New Zealand for our honeymoon. Crysania’s family is from New Zealand, so I met her family for the first time. The Cook Islands was the ultimate dream honeymoon spot for us.
Tell us about the proposal.
C: We became girlfriend/girlfriend on December 11th, 2016, so on our 1st anniversary, I set up a nice little area at Berkley Riverfront Park just down the road from our place. Lights were hung up around a circle of trees and the trees had small fairy lights wrapped around them.
Alyssia’s cousin helped me get her to the park by getting her ready, driving her, and blindfolding her. Alyssia thought she would get proposed to, but I made her best friends plus Dom tell her many MANY times previously that wasn’t the case and not to expect it- it worked!
Alyssia had a blindfold on, and I instructed her to take it off when she heard something. She heard our song “Say you won’t let go” by James Arthur.
She took her blindfold off and saw me standing in my cute black suit in the middle of the trees. Not even a millisecond went by, and she started crying! Alyssia cried the entire time she walked to me, when I talked, giving her my little speech, and even when I got down on my knee to ask her to marry me. I had to tell her to stop crying so that I can get an answer! She finally said yes.
We ate dinner at a local Italian restaurant, and then we went home and soaked up the fact that we’re engaged!
How was it planning a Kansas wedding from New York?
A & C: It was stressful! Co-ordinating and only being able to pick vendors from pictures and reviews. Alyssia was the one who made all the décor decisions, and Crysania executed her vision to the best of her ability.
We worked great as a team with some hiccups, but it was worth it in the end.
It was extra stressful as we chose to DIY nearly the entire wedding. The greenery for the tables, the little flower pieces for the lanterns, the centerpiece on our head table, the backdrop behind the head table, and the giant centerpiece hanging over us when we were getting married. A lot of it was handmade and done the day or two before the wedding with some of our friends and family’s help.
The wedding day didn’t go quite as planned; what happened?
A & C: It began to pour down rain the minute we woke up that day!
We both kept our spirits up because nothing was going to ruin this special day for us. Five minutes before the ceremony was about to start, Alyssia and her party got locked in their room with giant barn doors. We were able to open after around ten minutes, but it definitely had us panicking.
The ceremony began, and you couldn’t even tell that it had stormed earlier that morning. It was the perfect weather for us to walk down the aisle. Once the reception began, our bartender was late by two hours, so our party ran around, getting cold drinks to our guests.
Our baker also dropped half of our cupcakes, walking into the venue, so that was fun.
Throughout the entire day though, we both made sure to enjoy it no matter what went according to plan- it was memorable for sure. A day in our lives that we will never forget. We still made it out to be one of the best days of our lives together for as much chaos that occurred
After all of that, do you have advice for other couples planning a wedding?
A & C: Don’t let family interfere in your decisions and keep your boundaries. You won’t be able to make everyone happy, but always remember that this is YOUR day first and foremost.
There will be plenty of things that don’t go your way, but that’s okay. Remember the bigger picture here, as long as it ends with you saying ‘i do” with your partner, and then it was all worth it.
What does marriage mean to you?
C: It means teamwork in everything you do and say. You have to consider your spouse in everything you do while keeping yourself as one. It means being kind in your words and actions.
A: A marriage to me means a lifelong commitment to the one person on this earth that genuinely wants you to win in this world. Being together in whatever is thrown our way and remembering that it’s not us against each other but us against the problems.
It’s us promising to be there for one another even in times that we may not want to. It’s us choosing each other day in and day out. Marriage is going to bat for your partner because you are their number one cheerleader in this life.
We are almost to our one year mark, and it’s been the toughest by far. But we still stand next to each other because we understand the challenging hills we will have to climb to enjoy a love like ours.
We are complete opposites when it comes to our personalities, but that’s where we fill the parts that the other lacks. In marriage, you win some, and you lose some, but you just keep batting at the end of the day. Some days you will get a home run, and some you will get a strike. They both help define the person that walks onto the field. To end this, I’ve learned that I breathe for myself every day and for my wife.
Photographer Mindful Media
Bridal Boutique BHLDN
Catering Katie’s Catering
Ceremony & Reception Venue The Legacy at Green Hills
Cinematographer LFC Media
Gown Designer Watters
H&MU Rachelle Taylor
Stationery Minted
Suit Designer Tahari, Arthur S. Levine
