Wedding Details
How We Met
As told by Nikki: We met in biology lab while attending ECU. It was my very first semester of college and I had a crappy all-in-one machine that was supposed to print, scan, and copy. When I moved into my dorm and tried it out, I realized it didn’t work so I added a post on the school’s message boards. This guy named Nick sent me a message saying he could take a look at it but he didn’t live on campus so we would have to figure out a good time. I told him that someone from my dorm had offered to fix it but if she couldn’t make it work, I would let him know. A few days later, I walked into my first day of biology lab and sat down at a table with three guys. The teacher started taking attendance and when she called out “Nick Castillo” the guy next to me said, “here.” I thought, ‘Why does that name sound so familiar?” After she called my name and I confirmed my presence, he leaned over and asked, “So, did you get your printer fixed?” It was a pretty good way to start up a conversation! He walked me back to my dorm that afternoon and the rest, as they say, is history. And by the way, we never were able to get that darned printer to work!
The Proposal
The proposal happened a little over 7 years after we met. What I didn’t know before the whole ordeal was that Nick talked to my dad before proposing. He wasn’t asking permission because everyone who knows me knows how I would have felt about that but he was declaring his intensions and getting dad’s blessings and that I can live with… and actually think is sweet 🙂
So, my birthday falls on New Year’s Eve and that year I decided I wanted to have a fancy party to celebrate. We had been talking about getting married for a while so I knew it was going to happen, just not so soon; he had me believing that it would be at least another year so we could get our finances straight. At midnight on NYE 2010, we watched the ball drop with about 15 of our closest friends at my party in our little apartment. After the champagne toast and the New Year’s kiss, he made his announcement. He said that it was a night of many celebrations (my birthday, New Years Eve, our friends’ 11th wedding anniversary) and he wanted to add one more. He turned to me and said he was glad it wasn’t the first NYE/birthday celebration we’ve shared together and he wanted to share the rest of them with me for the rest of his life. He pulled out the ring from behind his back and said, “so I guess you know what this means!” I was smiling so big that my response was, “Okay!” We kissed and hugged and it was official. Best birthday ever!
Special thanks to Sheena Latham for taking these photos that night!
The ring was absolutely gorgeous! Nick picked it out all by himself – he knows me so well – from an estate collection. It’s an Edwardian style from the 1920’s:
my fingers look alien!
Wedding Party
Bridesmaids:
Nikki says:
Karissa Fenwick – Karissa and I met in 2008 when I started working with her at Triumph, LLC in Durham. We quickly became friends, mostly due to the fact that we were the closest in age of everyone that worked there (i.e. we were the youngest!) and now I consider her one of my best friends. She is very kind and a truly genuine person. You never feel out of place when you’re friends with her. I miss getting see her every [work]day, even though all we did was complain about how crappy our jobs were!
Maria Helgeson – Craigslist can be scary but not when Maria answers your ad! I was looking for a roommate in the fall of 2008 when Maria came to the rescue. We met over lunch and immediately hit it off, mostly because we’re both awesome feminists. She is so sweet and extremely caring that you always feel welcome and happy when you’re around her. And you can’t help but love her wacky sense of humor. I can honestly say she was the best roommate I ever had!
Jessica McCard – I finally have a sister, and Jessica is it! And she’s better than I ever could have asked for. She’s smart and sweet and somehow puts up with my brother as a husband! (just kidding, James!). I met Jessi several years ago when she and my brother had been dating for a while and when I found out they were getting married, I was ecstatic. Not only do I now have a sister, but also a great friend. I was in her wedding and I’m very excited that she’ll be here to share this experience with me, as well!
Madison Scott – I met Madison one spring day when I agreed to play a part in a play called Seventh Heaven while I was still in school in Greenville. She was only 14 at the time and she bounced up to me and started chatting. She said I looked older, like a senior in high school (I was a senior in college). Oh, precious girl! Anywho, Mads reminds me of myself when I was her age, only better. She’s intelligent and beautiful and has a good head on her shoulders. And she’s the ONLY girl that has slapped me in the face multiple times and got away it!
All of these women are truly amazing and I am very lucky to have each one in my life.
Groomsmen/maid:
Nick says:
Charles Latham – Charles and I met my first year here in NC walking to school one day. He’ll tell you he was scared of me because I was bigger and intimidating. Once we actually met and chatted we found out we had a lot in common, including our love of Star Trek and Star Wars, building models, cars and music. We’ve been best friends going on 20 years now and have been there for most of the biggest moments in each others lives. If he’s not here for the wedding I’ll kill him.
Jessica Orr – I met Jess freshman year at State. Her boyfriend was my suite-mate and she needed help in a physics class. Apparently my tutoring skills were lacking since she ended up dropping the class and majoring in Art and Design or something. She didn’t hold it against me though and we’ve remained close friends since despite my moving away from Raleigh and us not talking for months at a time. The fact that she offered to wear a suit since she was on my side of the aisle s testament to how awesome she is.
Joshua Rice – Josh and I were friends in high school but probably became better friends when I moved back to Greenville to finish up school. We hung out a lot more then and I introduced him to his crazy-ass ex girlfriend. In my defense I didn’t know she was so crazy, and I went down to Texas with his brother to save him and we moved in together. I therefore also take credit for him meeting his wife Crystal once he got back. Josh is probably the most down-to-earth and honest person I know. I love him like a brother.
D.J. Zagiba – DJ literally is my brother, kinda. We’re brothers in Phi Sigma Pi, the honor fraternity I joined at ECU. I was actually his Pledge Advisor, so in a weird way I’m kind of like a father figure too (cause I was an AWESOME Pledge Advisor, ask any of my pledges). Most of the memories I have with DJ probably can’t be shared here either because of fraternity secrecy or because we would probably get in trouble with authorities. There was that one time I slapped his bare ass to distract his parents, who were our opponents in beer pong at the time….we won. DJ and I are officially beer pong partners for life, we even have matching beer pong belt buckles.
Our Wedding Vendors
Photography:
Food:
Registry:
While we have a registry, we certainly do not expect anyone to get us a gift. It serves more as a “wish list” for things we plan to eventually purchase for ourselves when we start our next project: updating the house. *IF* you would like to buy us a gift, you’re more than welcome to choose something from the list. HOWEVER, in all honesty, we would much prefer cash that we could put toward a honeymoon (I’m sure you’re not surprised how quickly your savings diminish when you buy a house and pay for a wedding all in the same year) or toward the aforementioned house updates. Either way, we appreciate all of you and are just happy that you’re sharing this day with us 🙂