Due to the COVID-19 we had to postpone our wedding in the Philippines, May 15, 2020 this was our Lee-Stover Wedding with our friends and family. Instead, I wanted to share our wedding journey here. #finaLEEfoundaSTOVER
It’s been quite the journey!
WARNING: This is going to be a long blog article. Please feel free to scroll down to see photos on our mountain wedding here.
Cody and I got married on top of Snowmass Mountain on a ski run on a Palindrome Day on February 2, 2020. (02-02-2020). As you may know it was Groundhog Day, Superbowl Sunday, and most importantly the Puppy Bowl. In additional to all that it was a beautiful blue bird day after days of cloudy and stormy weather in Snowmass. Some brides walk down the aisle, but i skied towards my groom.
For those who don’t know what palindrome means here’s a quick definition. This will be the only palindrome in this century. The last palindromic date occurred on 11-11-1111 about 908 years ago. The next palindrome is on 12-12-2121 and this would be 101 years later and then on 03/03/3030 which is another 908 years later.
Palindrome : pal·in·drome | \ ˈpa-lən-ˌdrōm \ a word, verse, or sentence (such as “Able was I ere I saw Elba”) or a number (such as 1881) that reads the same backward or forward (Merriam-Webster Source)
“According to a CNN report, the Solihull School Maths Department tweeted out another interesting fact about this Palindrome date, saying that 2 February 2020 is also a palindrome day of this year, since its 33 days into the new year, with 333 days to go.” (Source: The Quint)
I get really excited thinking about how special this day is and how especially on this day I tie the knot with the love of my life. I did not do any planning at all for this day, my groom did all the planning and delegated to his best man and friends. I was completely stress free! Can you imagine?! 🧡
Before we get to the best part hope you don’t mind journeying with me from the proposal to the palindromic wedding date.
The Proposal: (12- 31- 2018)
As I write this my husband and I have been married for about 3 months. We were together for about 3 and a half years before we got engaged. Engaged for about a year and 2 months. Cody proposed on New Year’s Eve on December 31, 2018. He has this weird thing with even numbers. He had his grandmother’s ring resized and hidden in my old guitar for the past 8 months. He waited until the end of the (2018) year to propose. Cody asked my dad and my brother for my hand in marriage on the morning he proposed. There is a video of them facetiming which was really cool for me to see after he proposed. Thank you, Greg for taking a video and sending this to us!
The morning of the proposal was just another normal day for me; except my Dad kept Facetiming me and calling me while I was at work. Mind you the time difference is 15 hours between Colorado and the Philippines. That means it was very late in the Philippines and my dad was still awake. It was very odd, he would ask me how I was doing and kept telling me to update him about my day. Even when I thought that was odd, it didn’t really bother me since at that time I just thought my dad was missing me.
Fast forward to when Cody proposed, we usually watch the fireworks at 10 PM in Snowmass for New Year’s. We drove up to one of the hills overlooking a beautiful view of the fireworks and of Snowmass. He was hugging me from behind keeping me warm as it was the middle of winter. He attempted to move away which I misinterpreted and asked him “Are you farting?” and after that comedic moment he got down on one knee and said my full name and asked me to marry him. Of course I said YES and started ugly crying but who cares it was so surreal.
A few of my favorites from our engagement photos were taken in the Fall of 2019. Photos by Tyler Gros
Our Engaged Life (January 2019-February 1, 2020)
We enjoyed the first 3 months of our engagement by not planning or worrying about the save the dates. We just wanted to enjoy each other’s company and let it sink in. 3 Months later, we started looking at wedding inspirations, our wedding party, bridesmaids, groomsman, ninongs and ninang (godparents), discussing our officiant, the photographer, the videographer, the theme, guest list, and pretty much the whole wedding process! I was excited and hyped!!! We were thrilled to put down our deposit and find the right suppliers for our wedding in the Philippines.
We made our rings from scratch out of gold and took us about 4 sessions since we had to learn and practice the process. This was one of my favorite moments from our year long engagement. It is definitely a special feeling to hammer, cut, stamp, and do the whole process; making this an even more meaningful process during our engagement. Cody said he didn’t want to just buy our rings but he wanted to make it.. how hilarious is that right? I felt like a real dwarf as I was making his ring. He said he had a hard time making mine since I have small tiny fingers.
Our wedding coordinator, Aiza de Leon-Ingles who owns “Not Just a Box of Events” and is also a dear friend of mine from college has been so helpful and has been planning our wedding with us from the start. Check them out: “Not Just a Box of Events” She and her team have been really helpful since day 1 even until now during the pandemic. We even went home to the Philippines last year to check out some venues, visit my family and do some wedding planning. We did it ALL! We got our venue, caterer, photographer, videographers, wedding attire and all our wedding suppliers were good to go. We had a great time with my dad and my brother when we went home April 2019.
Cody and I also attended a marriage counseling seminar in our local church in Snowmass. We were the only engaged couple and the rest were married. It was a very exciting process.
Who knew that there was going to be a volcanic eruption in Tagaytay, Philippines where our wedding venue was going to be and the COVID pandemic!
On January 12, 2020 there was a volcanic eruption of Taal Volcano which is where our wedding venue was. Thinking that we were just going to wait it out before we postponed or changed venues. It did get better as time went by but then the pandemic was starting during November 2019. At that time my dad kept us updated with the corona virus happenings in China. Slowly I was losing hope that May 15, 2020 wasn’t going to happen. I honestly had been feeling very uneasy planning our wedding as the date closed in because everything just started falling apart from there.
The Small Intimate Wedding: (02-02-2020)
My husband has always wanted a small intimate wedding in the mountains. He and I agreed that the wedding on February 2, 2020 was going to be intimate and on top of the mountain. I would have “my” big wedding with our family and friends in the Philippines. Our way of compromising for each other’s wedding.
This day started with waking up to a beautiful day blue bird day, not a cloud in the sky. I did my own hair and make up, wore my $32 white lace dress with ski pants and Cody’s brother surprised me with a beautiful customized flower crown by Modern West Floral Company Cody picked up our centerpiece that his mother had gifted to us from our local flower shop at Accent on Wildflowers in Snowmass. Our caterers were Slow Groovin’ Snowmass, delicious mac and cheese, smoked ribs, brisket, and some salad. Our friends helped us out with getting the food from the bottom of the mountain and bringing it all the way up to the Cabin where we celebrated.
Below is a photo of our small venue and our centerpiece, orange flowers of course, for those who know me with my orange obssession.
Ski lift to the tippy top for the ceremony.
Skiing down for the first time as Mr. & Mrs. Stover followed by our wedding party!
Check out all of the photos of our special day on my facebook :
Thanks again David & Tyler!
Jess The Joyful Soul 