Real Wedding: Dana & Andrew
In college, Andrew Dombrowski had a crush on Dana Gordon. But she did not return his feelings until several years later, when they reunited while Dana was living in Boston and Andrew was in New York City. They got along impeccably, and started dating almost immediately.
After getting to know each other, Andrew remembers the evening of July 4, 2008 as the night that changed his life. He and Dana sat watching fireworks at his parent's home in Vermont. Andrew says, "it was just a perfect evening, and I knew that Dana was the one I wanted to have those perfect evenings with for the rest of our lives." He decided that he would propose to Dana exactly one year later.
The next year, Andrew and Dana once again watched the Independence Day fireworks in Vermont together, this time at a restaurant. Andrew planned to propose to Dana after dinner when they got back to his parents' house. Unfortunately, though, she ended up spilling a glass of red wine on the white carpet, and spent the subsequent two hours trying to clean it up. Needless to say, the romantic mood Andrew was hoping for had been ruined, and he needed to come up with a new plan to surprise Dana.
The next morning, as they were packing the car to leave Vermont, Andrew went back into the bedroom where he had hidden the ring. He yelled to Dana to come look at something, and although she resisted at first, he was eventually able to convince her to come back. When she turned the corner into the room, Andrew was perched on one knee, holding the ring between his fingers.
Neither Andrew nor Dana could wait to be husband and wife; they planned their wedding to be just five months later, on December 19, 2009. "If you are engaged and are ready to get married, just do it!" Andrew advises. "Don't feel like you have to wait a year or longer just because it seems like most people do it that way." Within this short time, Andrew and Dana were able to achieve the wedding of their dreams. Andrew attributes their success in such a short time to staying organized, making decisions together, and following a strict timeline.
Though they were faced with a time limit, Andrew and Dana wanted to add as many personal touches to their ceremony as possible. They wrote the entire ceremony themselves, incorporating wedding traditions from Christian ceremonies, to represent Andrew's faith, and from Jewish ceremonies to represent Dana's faith. They also included an excerpt from the children's book "I Like You," a gift Dana had given Andrew when they started dating. "Our guests were laughing hysterically during the reading of the children's book," Andrew remembers. Both Andrew and Dana were accompanied down the aisle by both of their parents.
One of their favorite memories of the evening was their band playing Journey's "Don't Stop Believing." All of their friends joined them on the dance floor to sing and dance. "It was a very unique way to end the reception," Andrew remembers, and says it proves that it was their guests who made the evening memorable.
"As much as you want it to be perfect," Andrew says, "remember that your wedding day is about getting married." He and Dana had a great time at their wedding, but their favorite part was hearing from family and friends about the celebration in the weeks following. Many of their guests made comments that the ceremony "was so you guys" or "we learned so much about who you are and what your relationship is like." Andrew's response to their praise is always, "That was the point!" He thinks the same type of successful wedding is guaranteed for anyone who puts the time into planning it.