Amanda & Shine – Compromising and Choosing a Micro-Wedding

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Shine accidentally added Amanda as a friend on Facebook, Amanda responded immediately. They met the next day and they’ve been together and inseparable since.

Aside from your wedding, what is your favorite memory together?

Driving outside of the city, laying on the hood of the car to watch a meteor shower and to our surprise, it would be the biggest shower anyone has seen in years. It was a small meteor storm with up to 200 shooting stars per hour and was amazing!

Tell us about the proposal.

I arranged for all her sisters from Portland to fly out and surprise her. Then, I took our family to the lights lantern festival. We were met by both of our parents and some of our closest friends and family. Shortly after the lanterns were launched into the sky, I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me.

Talk us through the decision to elope.

Amanda wanted to elope, and I wanted to have a wedding that included my family and friends. So we compromised on a small wedding and honestly could not have made a better decision

We’ve been together so long and our relationship is healthy. When it came to telling people about eloping everyone has been expecting this marriage for a long time.

Everyone’s response to our wedding has been super positive and supportive.

Talk us through the elopement day.

Amanda wanted to hire a wedding planner, so everything was stress-free! We showed up to the ceremony, and Niki, our wedding planner, had it all decorated and set up. Amanda’s dad was the officiant at our wedding, which made it even more personal. We did a unity sand ceremony and blessings from the four directions. At the location, Niki also had a sweethearts table set up where we did the cake cutting and champagne toast with our guests before heading to the reception.

The next step for us is to own a home. We plan to buy our first house together next year and plan big trips with the family to create new experiences and teach our children the culture and values outside of our city. We love our city, but it’s important that they learn different experiences and lifestyles other than what they see day to day.