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Whoever said, “Love takes time,” certainly never met Holly Akin and Jeff Auwinger. “When you know, you know,” is a better adage to describe their whirlwind romance. The couple met on Match.com in February 2008, and in no time, things got serious. “Really, I just knew! I could tell she was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with,” Jeff says.
Though Holly and Jeff only dated for two and a half months before Jeff popped the question, Holly makes perfect sense as to why neither needed a ton of time to know they wanted to be married. “We both understand ourselves very well and knew what we wanted in our spouse,” she says. “So when we met each other, the pieces just all fell into place. Jeff has all the qualities I have always hoped for in a man. We are best friends.”
Jeff surprised his best friend with his creative proposal. “The plan was to propose to Holly on the tram at Heavenly in South Lake Tahoe over Memorial Day weekend,” he explains. “But it was snowing, and the tram was closed when we got there. I had no plan B!” he says. Holly remembers the moment well. “He began to panic when the tram wasn’t running, which at the time I didn’t understand. Thank goodness the gondola was working. When we got to the top, Jeff wanted to have our picture taken. The next thing I knew he was down on one knee asking me to be his wife,” she says.
The couple wasted no time to start the planning of their wedding, which they set for a date just five months away. “Short planning time? Loved it! Less stress plus fewer chances to change your mind!” Holly quips. The decisive bride-to-be chose cobalt blue to be the main hue of her special day and accented with deep pinks, purples and lighter shades of blue to complement the autumnal palette the October weather would surely provide.
“We wanted a theme that set us apart from other weddings. We liked the idea of a monogram but felt it wasn’t as unique as we would have liked,” Holly says. So in addition to their monogram, Holly and Jeff used their profile silhouettes as a recurring motif. Their design was featured on the front of their invitations, the corner of the table tent cards and even projected on the wall at their reception, giving them just the memorable, stand-out look they had hoped for.
In no time, their wedding day had arrived, and their sunset ceremony at the Vizcaya Pavilion & Mansion came and went. “Before the wedding, we were concerned about making sure the ceremony was short, and now that I look back on it, the ceremony was my favorite part,” Holly says. “It was a blur.” Except there is one thing Holly won’t ever forget about that day. “Jeff’s smile as I walked down the aisle toward him—once I locked onto him, he was all I saw,” she says.
Jeff laughs. “I was just glad she showed up and said yes! That was all I wanted!” OO
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