Real Wedding Wednesday: Betsy & Tim

Newlyweds Betsy & Tim are the definition of partners. After dating for a few months, they started their own business together (can you say #powercouple?). Today, they own DwellHop, which is a Real Estate & Construction company in Madison, Wisconsin. We love marriages that combine trust, collaboration, friendship, and ambition into a beautiful mix of partnership, which is why we're excited to share their love story. They chose Soha Diamond Co. for Tim's white tungsten wood inlaid band, and Betsy's rose gold contoured wedding band. Read below for our Q&A with Betsy about wedding planning, the rings, and the big day.

1. When did you and Tim get engaged?

We got engaged the first week of August 2017.

2. Was the proposal a complete surprise?

The engagement wasn't a complete surprise. I picked out my ring after a lot of research and we bought it the day we signed the contract with our wedding venue. Then I waited very impatiently for a month for the ring and the engagement to be official. I knew it was coming but didn't know when Tim would actually propose. It was the best of mix of planning together and surprise.

3. Tell us the proposal story! 

Tim proposed at the Observatory on campus where we were supposed to have our third date but still hadn’t made it to. He wanted to be able to say he “proposed on our third date four years later”. We’d gone to the city design commission meeting to see the new design for HotelRed and Tim’s plan had been for us to go to dinner then take a walk on campus. After the meeting, Tim was pushing for us to go to dinner on the Square, but, as so many engagement stories go, I unknowingly foiled his plans by pushing to go somewhere else because it was so busy downtown. After dinner we went to the Union and Tim suggested a walk on campus. About halfway up the hill to the Observatory I remarked how dark it was. Tim hung his head and sighed, “I know,”. The Observatory is only open on perfect nights, with no clouds and low humidity. The only place they announce if the Observatory will be closed is on Twitter. Tim had been checking all day but apparently someone forgot to post. The doors were locked so after a good shake to be sure Tim proposed outside them. Then we went to HotelRed for a drink to celebrate because, of course.

We chose small jewelers to make my engagement ring and our wedding bands because we are small business owners ourselves. We also felt like the level of service and communication we received was better than if we'd ordered our rings from larger websites. My wedding band is made of lab-grown diamonds, and from a cost standpoint, this allowed me to get the rings I wanted at a price we were comfortable with. We couldn't find those options at any of the larger more traditional jewelers.

5. Did you do anything outside of the “norm” for your wedding?

We planned almost the whole wedding before we got engaged. We spent over a year planning and comparing options. We bought the engagement ring the day we finally picked a venue. By the time we officially were engaged, we'd signed contracts with our venue who was also our caterer, our photographer and our band.

6. What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone about to get married?

 When planning your wedding try to keep in perspective that you're planning a party for one day, but you're creating memories for the rest of your life. Create a day that will be significant and fun for you and your guests while building time for the special moments. As you allocate money think about what details will matter as memories and which won't. 

Thanks for sharing, Betsy!

Learn more about their business, DwellHop.

All photos taken by Blu Moose Photography.