We asked Tricia to reminiscence about the proposal and the day of her wedding. Here's what she had to say.
The Proposal
My husband, Geoff, proposed to me on Thursday, September 8, 2011, on the beach. We were living in Virginia Beach at the time and actually leaving for New York City that night because we were participating in the Travis Manion Foundation's 9/11 Heroes Run in the city that weekend. We have a very active black lab (Payton) who loves the beach and hates car rides. Geoff had convinced me to meet him on the beach so we could throw the tennis ball to Payton and get some of that energy out before we left. When I had arrived after work, I saw him there, but didn't see Payton. As I got closer to where he was sitting, I noticed he had a dozen roses and some wine set up with beach chairs. I asked him what was all this about and he just said it was because he knew we both had a stressful week. He then asked me to hand him the wine opener that was in a bag next to me, and when I reached in the bag I saw the ring. I turned around in shock and he was on his knee and asked me to marry him.
The Venue
We choose the Naval Academy for our wedding because Geoff had graduated from there in 2009. He had attended a prep school (NAPS) in Newport, Rhode Island, and then went on to do four years at the Naval Academy. It was a special place to both him and me, because I am from Annapolis as well. It was an easy choice since the Chapel is absolutely stunning. The ceremony was held there on February 4, 2012, and the reception was held at my father's country club, Chartwell, which is in Millersville.
The Dress
I choose my wedding dress the weekend my parents were throwing an engagement party for Geoff and me. Actually, my brother had recently gotten engaged as well, so it was a joint party for the four of us. My mom, my (future) sister-in-law and I went to Georgetown the Saturday morning of the party to start looking for dresses. Because I was living in Virginia Beach, my sister-in-law lives in San Diego, and my mom in Annapolis, it was really special to have everyone there with me. We went looking for a particular Vera Wang dress that I had had my eye on. Saks Jandel carried it so we made our way there. After being surprisingly disappointed with the gown I thought was going to be the one, and several others we were about to call it a day when the woman who was helping us had me try on 'one last one'. It was beautiful, strapless Vera Wang dress that I and everyone else instantly fell in love with. We bought it right then and there.
The Wedding
We made a few personalizations to our wedding, but to be honest probably not as many as I would have liked. We had only about four months to plan the wedding, so it was pretty crazy to try and pull everything together in such a short amount of time. Two weeks after we got engaged, Geoff had found out that he was being stationed in San Diego, which is why we had planned the wedding so fast. We wanted to get married in Annapolis before we moved. One of the big personalization that we did was instead of wedding favors we made a donation to the Travis Manion Foundation which is something that is very special to Geoff and me.
Geoff had been recruited by Navy to play lacrosse which is why he ended choosing to attend the Naval Academy. One of his teammates, Brendan Looney, was killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan in 2010. Brendan Looney's roommate from the Naval Academy was Travis Manion, who was also KIA in Iraq in 2007. So the Travis Manion Foundation is a cause that honors both Brendan and Travis, as well as many of our other fallen heroes. So we had Travis Manion Foundation bracelets on everyone's plate as well as a write up in the middle of each table on the foundation. Geoff also wrote a a bio on each Brendan and Travis which we had frame in the back of the room so our guests could read about their stories as well.
Some other little personalizations we had were the cake toppers were specially made, the girl was painted to look like me and my dress, and the boy was painted to look like geoff in his white uniform. We had grooms cake made for Geoff that represented Navy lacrosse. We also did the sword arch ceremony on the stairs of the chapel after the wedding ceremony. Each swordsman were members of the Navy lacrosse team. The groomsmen wore American fly ties by Vineyard Vines.
The Vendors
I believe that each of our vendors went out of their way to make our wedding day special. Claire from the Naval Academy Chapel was extremely wonderful to work with and was always more than happy to answer any questions. She helped us get all of our paperwork in order as well as took on the responsibility of coordinating with all of the other vendors so we didn't have to. Yale Moyer from Chartwell was amazing! I cannot say enough nice things about Yale and Chartwell. She handle everything with amazing professionalism and helped to bring the choas of our timeline into a beautiful reality. She bared with me during constant changing of minds, dates, guests, center pieces, etc. During the reception everything went off without a hitch and it was all because of her. Cassidy DuHon is phenomenal. I felt very lucky to have found him and been able to work with him. I explained to him, as I'm sure most brides do, that these pictures are going to be the most important thing to me as they will be what help get me through Geoff's upcoming deployments. And he completely got it. He produced amazing pictures and was just so easy to get along with. I would be absolutely thrilled to work with him again. The flowers were from Little House of Flowers and turned out amazing as well. The bouquets were stunning and I was just so happy with how everything came together and how wonderful each vendor was.
And the last person who I would consider a 'vendor' would be my mom. She literally planned and coordinated everything. With both Geoff and I working in Virginia and preparing to move, we had so much going on that without my mom the wedding would have never come together as well as it did. She attended every tasting, fitting, planning session, anything you can think of she was there helping. She was my point of contact with the vendors and dealt with things when they went wrong. She is by far the best mom a girl could ever ask for.
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