Real Brides: Kasha

I met Justin while I was living in Calgary. We had a mutual friend who Justin worked with who introduced us. At the time, I wanted nothing to do with dating. After many attempts on Justin’s part to prove to me “he wasn’t like the rest of them” (like every girl has heard at some point in their life- usually by a guy who is “just like the rest of them”) I agreed to go for dinner. Not knowing he was flying in and out of Calgary at the time for work, our schedules never worked out and the dinner never happened. We always kept in touch through social media- “likes” and him sliding into my DMs with the good old heart eye emoji on any banging selfie I posted! 2 months after our initial meeting, I was convinced to move to Vancouver- after posting a few photos of my new home I once again received a DM “Am I seeing this right? You live in my province now? British Columbia?” —Yes, Yes I am! A long 6 months of pretending I didn’t want to date Justin got old, and I finally agreed to take the ferry over to the island, Victoria, BC where he lived. Who would have thought the guy who was almost a half an hour late picking me up from the ferry for our first date would end up being my boyfriend by the end of the same trip. He spoiled me with the best weekend, and I didn’t want to leave. We planned for me the move there the very next month. It wasn’t easy, we moved fast, there were plenty of bumps in the road, and a couple road blocks, but we always found a way to restart the engine on the open road. On January 18, 2019 he proposed in the same place he took me on our first date, The Parliament Building in Victoria, BC. It was magical. The first thing I did was of course call my Mom on FaceTime and she laughed at how excited I was, she already knew. Justin FaceTimed both my Mom and Dad months prior to ask for the blessing, and of course it was a no brainer— My Dad passed along great advice “Run now and never look back!” The second thing I did was save what seemed like every single Pinterest photo of brides in bedazzled lace gowns with dreamy long trains. I tried on similar dresses and dresses completely different, after the 5th dress I tried on, I found this dress— I SAID YES! Everyone thought it was perfect! We began to plan what we were calling our dream wedding, something laid back and beautiful, a day where we could truly be ourselves, to share and showcase our love. Sometimes you get so caught up in the details that go into a wedding, like the florals, the fabrics, the food— you forget what a wedding is really for, the commitment and love of two people wanting to spend the rest of their sunsets together, so WE ELOPED! It was the most magical day. Nothing fancy, just love. We opted not to tell anyone and keep it a surprise, keeping the secret was the hardest part. We made all of our decorations by hand, I arranged all our florals, and thrifted all the small stuff. We kept it simple, it rained pretty hard during our first look, but as soon as we started our secret ceremony the rain stopped, not a single drop. It was perfect! I have had countless compliments on my dress. It truly is a show shopper. It was a trooper, through the rain, mud, forest, ocean and sand. I soaked it in the tub the night of, and to my absolute surprise and shock it looks brand new! Amazing dress all around, thank you, thank you, thank you.