the blonde party: G+G’s Engagement (6/19/20)

Hi! Anna here, writing to kick off “G+G’s post-wedding wedding week…s” (yeah, not our best title, but we’re gonna roll with it).

It’s been about a month and a half since Greta and Grant’s wedding, and things finally feel back to normal. The past 15 months have been full of countless celebrations, unforgettable memories and many, maaaaany happy tears. It was such a special time for all of us, and we’re so excited to finally share all about it.

It may seem strange that we’re sharing about this so long after the fact. Sure, we wrote a blog post or two, and shared snippets of things on our Instagram stories, but we’ve yet to talk about so many of the highlights. For awhile, I couldn’t figure out why we were all procrastinating sharing about such fun and exciting things. I finally realized that we simply never felt like we could do these moments justice, so we procrastinated. Thus, here we are… 15 months later…. talking about Greta and Grant’s engagement. Better late than never.

Over the next two weeks, we’ll be taking turns sharing all the wedding related tips, tricks & stories from the past year. We couldn’t make Greta write 14 blog posts all on her own, so you’ll be hearing from all of us pretty equally. I volunteered to take on the first topic, but don’t worry, you’ll hear from the ACTUAL PERSON WHO GOT ENGAGED later in this post. Oh, and if this gets a little long, just scroll to the bottom to see all the photos!!

Now, let’s get into it! To set the scene, it was Spring 2020. Peak quarantine, so we’d been spending A LOT of time together. We knew it was simply a matter of time before Greta and Grant would get engaged. We also knew Grant would give us a heads up and would probably involve us in some way since family is really important to him, but nothing could have prepared us for the chaos and excitement that ensued when the text finally came – IT WAS TIME. I think it was the very end of May when he texted us (his mom Michelle, his sister Tatum, our mom and the four of us) telling us that had the ring and wanted to propose to Greta at the cabin. Honestly, we were all buzzing with excitement, so my memory of the details is a little hazy… We’ll post a redaction/update if Grant wants to clarify any of the details, but here are the things I recall Grant wanting: he wanted both of our immediate families to be there, he wanted it at the cabin and he wanted to incorporate photos of the two of them. As for the rest of the details, he was open to suggestions. So, as I’m sure you can imagine, we all started furiously typing, each of us trying to get our thoughts out before someone cut us off. I immediately start searching Pinterest for dock proposal inspo, Ellie films a 2.5 min video of herself explaining how we could pull it all off, and we’re all throwing out dates and talking details.

We finally land on Father’s Day weekend at our cabin in northern Wisconsin. My mom sent us a standard “plan on Father’s Day at the cabin” text, and the plans were in motion. I could write pages on how we had to get VERY creative to ensure Greta didn’t arrive at the cabin before us (pretending Grant had to work late) and the lengths we went to to ensure she wasn’t wearing sweatpants… but in short: we asked her friends to take her to happy hour at Cov and didn’t allow much time to change in between.

Now, let’s talk about how it all came together. Grant told us what he liked/didn’t like about some of the inspo photos, and we all agreed on using black lanterns, candles and basically whatever else we could find at the cabin to make everything feel cozy and romantic. I went up to the cabin the weekend before, and did a test run with all of the decor. Ellie was up there with a huge group of friends, and I remember Greta asking me why I was randomly driving up there on a Saturday morning (to which I just shrugged, haha). I still cannot believe we pulled it all off… Anyway, the test run went well. We snapped a few photos and sent them to Grant. With his approval, we headed home and finalized the rest of the details.

When the Shaeffers arrived the following weekend, both of our families went to town, feverishly trying to get everything set up in time. Something you should know about Grant – he actually has really good style/design taste. So while we knew we weren’t going to let him down, the pressure was definitely on.

We set up a little surprise cocktail area up on the patio where we made “marry me margaritas,” brought out some custom G+G wine labels and napkins and displayed the G+G jean jacket I made Greta (DM for inquiries ;)). We made a s’more station, and prepped a charcuterie board/appetizer spread for after the big moment. We queued up our engagement playlist, lined the stairs and dock with about 80 pillar candles and staged the end of the dock with the following:

Lanterns
Framed photos
A vintage camp blanket
String lights
A handwritten sign
Flowers
Trunks/tins
A champagne Bucket
Candlesticks

Finally, we pulled the red Chris Craft, “Babe,” up to the dock, put some champagne on ice AND WE WAITED.

This feels like the right time to add this BTS video to really give you an idea of the craziness going on before they arrived (of course I’m yelling, sorry):

I’ll stop here, and let Greta take over to tell you about the rest of the weekend! It was truly so special and we are all so grateful to have been a part of it.

Greta’s POV
One of the best things about the engagement was the surprise that everyone pulled off, I had NO idea it was happening. I knew I was going to get engaged that summer, but I thought it would happen sometime in August. We were going up to my cabin for a family weekend because it was Father’s Day on Sunday. I knew having both of our families involved in our engagement was important to both Grant and me, so because it was just my family coming up to the cabin (so I thought) I thought, no chance could it be happening! Two of my best friends set up a happy hour at Cov and the plan was for Grant to pick me up from HH and we would head up to the cabin (hence why I was in jeans and a tank). I almost NEVER travel to the cabin in anything other than sweats and a sweatshirt, so for me to be in jeans was a huge win ha! Looking back, the car ride was normal, we were talking and singing, except I do remember Love Story by Taylor Swift was playing and it was the chorus, and I was jamming & Grant quickly changed the music, I was so annoyed! Later to realize, he was getting teary eyed under his sunglasses so he needed to change it <3
We get to the cabin 3 hours later, and my mom distracts me right away by asking me to help her make a bed, not thinking anything of it, I help her. She then said, let’s get ready for dinner we’re heading to fish fry soon! As I walk in the cabin my sisters are standing on the deck and the quickly say “Greta come out here were having a quick drink before dinner” So I go out on the deck, and then they proceed to say, “what is that down there?” that’s when I saw the set up on our patio, candles & pictures and I knew. I start walking down the stairs and then I saw Grant standing there at the end of the dock waiting for me. It was the perfect proposal, the lake in the background. It was intimate, simple, meaningful & simply perfect <3 It was everything I could have imagined and more. We popped champagne and then something I will never forget, Marry You by Bruno Mars starts blaring on the outdoor speakers and both of our families come running out of the basement doors. All our people were here to help us celebrate. We hugged, drank, talked, it was the best! Then our dads took us for a little boat ride on the lake & we had some time to just take it all in and reflect. We came back and then some of our best friends surprised us (surprises just kept coming!) we ate dinner, told stories, had a bonfire, danced and sang, it truly was the most magical night. But it didn’t end there! The next morning, we woke up at the cabin, and even more of our best friends surprised us! It was so fun to celebrate with all of our favorite and closest people. We went on the lake, played games, and continued to celebrate all weekend long. It was the best weekend ever & the perfect engagement surprise!
-Greta-

And finally, here are some photos from the big weekend!