As you may know, a huge part of my heart and my mission is to tell love stories. I want to work with you to create something so beautiful, so meaningful, that you hold onto it. That you show your grandchildren along with your wedding photos. That’s why when a new client first contacts me and I send along my initial questionnaire, I have quite a few personal questions! I want to get to know you — I want to find out how you and your sweetheart met. Tell me how you spend your time, what you do for fun. Tell me what you love about one another. Tell me about your engagement.
When Holly filled out my questionnaire and told me a bit about her and her love Brenden, I was obsessed with their engagement story! A creative outing at a venue that gives to its community so wholeheartedly. An afternoon spent glassblowing turned into an evening with a surprise candlelit proposal. Talk about the way to a girl’s heart! Or, at least, my heart. Also, Holly’s heart. Just look at this sweet girl and her sweet fiancé. Brenden, you sure did right with this one.
From Holly:
“Waking up that Saturday morning I had absolutely no idea how the day would come to transpire into one of the best. days. ever! It was already going to be a fun day since Brenden’s sister Kallie (and bestie!) was in town from Portland to spend the weekend with us. We had plans for nails, Seattle-touristing, & a glassblowing event at glassybaby’s hot shop that I thought was organized by Brenden’s parents (but later learned that Brenden planned the whole thing!). On the Monday prior to the day we got engaged, Brenden’s mom had sent an email to Brenden, Kallie & me saying that she was in the glassybaby store the previous weekend and learned that they did these ‘blow your own glass’ events, so she decided to sign us up to do one since we’d all be together in Seattle that weekend. I’d seen them advertised on glassybaby’s social media pages, and always thought that they looked fun! This was totally something that his mom would just do, so I wasn’t really wondering or questioning why she ‘scheduled’ this for us.
That afternoon after the three of us has spent the afternoon wandering the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, we made our way up to glassybaby, located in the Madrona neighborhood of Seattle. Glassybaby is a Seattle based glass-blowing company with the most beautiful story; they create these gorgeous hand-blown glass votive holders and the proceeds of each purchase go to a charity. I’ve always loved them ever since I was gifted my first by Brenden’s mom. I wasn’t sure what to expect at this glass blowing event, whether there would be a big group of people doing it or just the three of us.”
“When we arrived, I learned it would just be the three of us blowing glass, and we each chose an object and the colors for the items that we wanted to make. We signed a liability form as well as a photo release (which turned out to be totally unnecessary; Brenden just didn’t want me to question if I saw a photographer taking photos of us! He really did think of everything). We each took turns blowing our glass with the instructor; Kallie went first, Brenden went second, and I went last. At the end of our session after we had all finished, the glassybaby event coordinator told us that they had set out some light snacks for us in their event space at the front of the building. We turned to walk that direction with Brenden leading the way.
Brenden led us into the room that was filled with so many gorgeous white glassybaby that were lit up filling the room with gorgeous candlelight. I noticed that there was champagne on ice to the left of the door, and then across the room I noticed cupcakes and a card with my name on it. At the end of the table closest to us was a specially-engraved red glassybaby, the color was ‘everlasting.’ As soon as we walked into the room, I still had no idea what was going on; it wasn’t until Brenden picked up the red glassybaby and started talking to me about how much he loved me that I started to realize what was happening. I immediately started tearing up, unable to form any sort of words! Everything about this setting and this man standing in front of me on one knee was just so perfect. I managed to get out an ‘mmhmm!’ after he asked me if I would marry him!”
“This whole moment was just such a blur, but a perfect one. After a big hug and many kisses, he put the ring on my finger and it was official; we were engaged! The rest of the night was full of spontaneous happy tears, laughs & smiles sharing the news with our friends and family. It truly was absolutely perfect!”
I’m excited and honored to have worked with Holly on some lettering that was used in her and Brenden’s engagement shoot. Stay tuned — can’t wait to share more. 🙂
If you think glassybaby’s whole deal is as freaking cool as I do, you can find out more on their website.
we began when the light
of a candle in hand-blown glass
gave hope to lee rhodes.
this hope helped her heal
from cancer three times
and inspired a business
devoted to giving
hope, beauty, kindness,
and millions of dollars
to help people, animals, and our planet heal.
To date, glassybaby has raised over five million dollars (!!!) for causes consistent with their mission of bringing healing to people, animals, and our planet. Holly, thank you so much for sharing your story, and thank you for bringing some awareness to this company that’s doing so much good in the world.
All images courtesy of glassybaby
