Ethan and I each knew that we wanted to get married before we even started dating. Of course, we didn’t share that with one another but God had given each of us a peace early on that this relationship was good and of Him. The day that Ethan & I became “official”, he asked me out by pretty much saying, “I want to marry you. So I guess the next step is dating!” haha, smooth 😉 I did not tell him then but I was giddy with excitement, as I knew I wanted to marry him too. It didn’t take but about a month later for us to start to brainstorm ideas for our wedding and honeymoon.
Ethan took a gap year between high school and college to travel with a buddy. He and his friend backpacked and explored New Zealand and Australia for about six months. He fell in love with NZ & told his buddy at the end of the trip, “Man, this has been an incredible trip. You were great to travel with and all, but I am going to come back one day with my wife!” And from that moment on, Ethan asked that God would make a way for him to be able to bring his wife to NZ for a couple months honeymoon.
I had heard about his time in NZ from the first day that we met. I love adventure & knew that New Zealand was beautiful so when Ethan shared his desire to go to there for a long honeymoon, I was ecstatic! And, as I learned more about NZ and Ethan’s experience there, it quickly became my DREAM honeymoon. Now all we had to do was ask God to show us a way to make that trip possible. The day after we got engaged, God did just that as we sat down and came up with a plan…
Ethan would go back to Minnesota a few days later and put his two-week notice in to his work (this was a sacrifice for him, as he loved his job!). He would then immediately get to work finishing up what he needed to do on his houses & list them for sale (another sacrifice for him, as he invested a ton of time, energy, and resources into getting them the way they were). All the while he had to pack up his houses, sell things he didn’t want to keep, and spend as much time as possible with his family and friends. He had five weeks to do all of this, because he was to move here to CA only four days before we were to be married (which was six weeks after getting engaged). We were engaged January 17, 2017 (exactly one year from the day we met). God provided Ethan with a job here in California that would start at the beginning of June. We realized that the sooner we were married, the more time we would have for a honeymoon so we decided on March 9th.
Now, you probably all know that planning a wedding is no joke. Most people take 6+ MONTHS to plan their wedding… I had 6 weeks. With only a short amount of time & our families in different states (all his family & friends are in Minnesota & the majority of mine are in Washington), we decided to do something small (immediate family only) and spend our money on a long honeymoon instead of our wedding day. With my mom’s help, I had our wedding planned in one week: we scouted out a beautiful grassy area on the lake where we would have the ceremony, ordered the girls’ (Ethan’s & my sisters) “bridesmaids” dresses, picked out our brothers outfits, bought a few little decorations, reached out to our pastor to see if he would officiate, and booked a photographer, videographer, and a hair & makeup artist. Now you’re probably wondering about a wedding dress. Well, thankfully I already had that covered— three months into dating my parents knew we were getting serious so my dad suggested that we go dress shopping so I would be prepared for when the time came (thanks dad!). And just like that, our wedding was planned! His family flew out here & we had such a sweet, intimate, and special ceremony as we committed our lives and hearts to each other in front of our families, pastor, and most importantly, God.
I am so grateful that we took this route because I was able to be fully present & stress-free during the planning and during the ceremony! Plus, our 9 week honeymoon was pretty fun, too 😉 (Will share about our trip & how it deepened our relationship in another post sometime soon!)
I’d now love to share our wedding video & pictures with you all! Ethan & I are both SO grateful to have our wedding day captured so beautifully so we can share it with everyone who wasn’t able to be there! We hope you all enjoy this glimpse into our wedding day! 🙂
XOXO
Sammy Kastello
Videography- Direct Light Studios
Photography- Nicole Quiroz Photography
Hair & Makeup- Julia Vorobets
We HIGHLY recommend them all!! <3
Also, a HUGE shout out & THANK YOU to our pastor, Banning Liebscher!
CLICK LINK DIRECTLY BELOW TO WATCH! 🙂
Samantha & Ethan’s Wedding Video
