Real Brides: Michele

On a Friday night in August 2018, Michele went out to a beach bar with zero expectation of meeting her future husband. Her only plans were to show two of her lifelong best friends a fun time during their visit to San Diego. As she was doing the macarena on an almost empty dance floor, a tall handsome man dressed in a Hawaiian shirt approached her by doing the macarena alongside her. He introduced himself as Mason and briefed Michele on the fact that he was serving in the Marine Corps and had been sent to Southern California for training. To his surprise, Michele informed Mason that they were certainly wasting their time by dancing together. “I don’t like to entertain the attention of military men because I’ve heard they rush into commitments”, she told him. Instead of accepting rejection, he responded satirically by getting down on one knee in the middle of the dance floor and pretending to propose to her. There was no doubt Michele was attracted to Mason’s dashing looks and witty sense of humor but she couldn’t let herself be so easily impressed so she turned down his facetious proposal. Even so, that didn’t discourage him either- he asked for her phone number at the end of the night and a small still voice led Michele to program her real phone number into his phone instead of a fake one. Mason left back to Hawaii that weekend after his training had ended but he still had the motivation to keep texting and calling Michele even now that the Pacific Ocean was separating them. Over the course of a few months, he would end up convincing her to travel to Hawaii to accompany him as his date to the Marine Corps Ball. Their impetuous Hawaiian rendezvous came and went... but his sights were still set on their future together after she returned to San Diego. Mason had been blessed with the ability to charm Michele across time zones and the spark between them went on to last through two overseas deployments and endured three years of long distance. Mason proposed to Michele (again) on New Years Eve 2020 in Honolulu, Hawaii and they were married on September 3rd, 2022 in San Diego, CA.

I was excitedly browsing Pinterest soon after we were engaged and came across a photo of J6775. A part of me already had my mind made up right then and there. I called around to bridal shops and found the closest one that carried it. A few months later I packed the car up with my future mother in law and three of my best friends and we headed to Ferndale’s Bridal in Orange, CA. I fell in love with J6775 as soon as I tried it on but gave a few more dresses a chance just so that my dress shopping entourage and I could have the full experience. After trying on about five more dresses I tried J6775 back on with a veil this time and said yes to the dress.

Photo Credits: Jordan Elizabeth Photo