A DIY Wedding with Nate and Felix

To Have and to Holden is our series where we interview real couples about their romance, weddings, and whatever else comes up along the way. Enjoy!

Nate and Felix are a Seattle-based couple with an incredible meet-cute story. Due to COVID-19, they pivoted their original wedding plans into a backyard microwedding (with help from some Pinterest DIY). Nate wore our Line Profile and was kind enough to share their story.

How did you two meet and start dating?

Despite living only two blocks from each other, Nate and Felix met how most people do nowadays: online. Nate, being the brave and assertive person that he is, messaged Felix first with the super romantic "Hey." Felix did not respond.

But Nate was persistent and did not give up. Finally, one day when Felix was at a drive thru Starbucks getting his usual grande latte with two Splendas, he looked up and saw the cutest barista he had ever laid eyes on and thought he looked familiar. Later that day, he put together that the cute barista was the person he had been ignoring - how could he have been so stupid? So, Felix messaged Nate "Hey, don't you work at the Mercer Island Starbucks?"

Nate and Felix messaged each other online for almost a year before they actually met in person. They bonded over favorite TV shows, a love for animals, and the struggles of being a student. They finally made a date to meet in person and met for the first time at Oddfellow's Cafe in Seattle, one block away from where they originally planned to be married - before COVID.

How did you get engaged?

Felix surprised Nate with a nice hotel room in downtown Seattle for their two year anniversary weekend. Felix went early and decorated the room with balloons and watercolor artwork of the two of them. They got dinner and walked around town exploring small streets and little shops. The next morning Felix told Nate to close his eyes. Felix pulled out a ring and spoke about his love for Nate and that he wants them to be together, holding hands through life.

We know you had to reschedule your wedding - can you talk to us about how you decided to celebrate the way you did?

Our original plan was to get married at a smaller industrial venue on Capitol Hill in Seattle in August 2020, just one block from where we had our first date. We were planning on having about 65 people attend, many of them from out of town and out of the country. As more and more restrictions were put in place, we kept holding out hope that things would be okay by the end of the summer, but things just kept getting worse.

By June, we had to accept that holding such a large wedding would be unsafe for us and our guests, and that our venue would most likely be closed anyways. Thankfully, Felix is a master planner and DIY-er, so we jumped right into planning a small backyard wedding at Nate’s childhood home. We knew that what mattered most to us was having an evening to celebrate our love surrounded by just our closest family and friends. So we scaled down the guest list to just 25 people and searched Pinterest for inspiration. Our wedding ended up being just about perfect. Doing all of the flowers and decorations ourselves ended up being a great way for us to bond even more and really tailor everything exactly to our shared vision.

What’s one moment from your wedding day you’ll remember forever?

We had a private first dance to a cover of "Stand by Me" sung by Florence + the Machine. As we danced, it honestly felt like everything else in the world disappeared except for the beautiful man in my arms. Felix cried and I held him in my arms. It was the most magical moment of my life. My hope is that we’ll continue to hold each other tight and dance together for the rest of our lives.

Do you have any advice for a couple planning a wedding that may have been disrupted by COVID-19?

The biggest piece of advice we have is to keep perspective on what your wedding is actually about. It is easy to get wrapped up in the stress of plans falling through or things being canceled, so take a step back and just have a date night or go for a little walk together. In the end, the only thing that mattered to us about our wedding is that we were celebrating our love and how lucky we are to have each other. That could have happened at any venue, with any number of guests, and with any decorations.

What was important to you when choosing a ring? What made you choose Holden?

I knew that I wanted a ring that was simple enough that I could wear it every day no matter the occasion but also have a little something special about it. I chose Holden because I immediately fell in love with the smooth and modern shapes offered, and I loved all the customization options. I also really liked the gender neutralness of all the options, and I could see myself wearing just about all the rings on the website.

What does love mean to you?

Our love means home. It means safety, comfort, and support. It means being who you are, looking how you look, and never having to hide anything about yourself. Love means holding hands and walking together through life’s ups and downs.

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