Briza on the Bay

Wedding Day

Wedding

Reception

Our Wedding

Josh and Brittney met at Florida Gulf Coast University at Honors 15 dorm room. Both became instant friends with their love of sports, food, and the ocean. Josh came to all of Brittney's softball games with signs and loud cheers.&nbsp;As time passed, they both realized that maybe they were more than friends. Josh bet Brittney in a game of mini golf that if he wins, they should date. He won (Brittney let him) and they have been together ever since.&nbsp;

How We Met

I have always wanted to go to Albuquerque, NM for the Hot Air Balloon Festival. I am a planner to say the least so I had a whole itinerary for what we were going to do. We went hiking at Tent Rocks, roamed through Old Town, and even saw ancient petroglyphs&nbsp;where we even heard wild coyotes.&nbsp;On 10/17/17, Josh booked a hot air balloon ride. We woke up super early to head to the festival. We went through all the safety instructions and stepped into the basket. Our pilot was amazing giving us some history about hot air balloon flying and about Albuquerque. I had my camera out and was snapping pictures of hundreds of balloons flying around when Josh taps my shoulder and says "This basket is smaller than I thought it would be so I can't get down on one knee, but will you marry me?" with the sun just rising and balloons all around us.&nbsp;It was the easiest yes of my life! Our pilot took photos for us and gave us a champagne toast once on the ground. We went to the BEST Mexican restaurant where my parents surprised us to celebrate. Magical day.&nbsp;

The Proposal Brittney's Side

So planning a proposal is&nbsp;easily one the most difficult things to do&nbsp;when your girlfriend&nbsp;gives you a&nbsp;lists full of mandatory things.
1)&nbsp;Parents must be there (check)
2)&nbsp;Best friends must be there (not checked but she forgave me)
3) Nails (check)
I am sure you get the point here. Her list alone would tell her in big bright bold letters "HE&nbsp;IS&nbsp;PROPOSING". So of course I took the list with a grain of salt and met the ones that really mattered.
For those of you that don't know, Brittney&nbsp;does this weird thing of sleeping and waking up knowing my thoughts and secrets when I try to plan things to surprise her. So I had to come up with a plan. What was this genius plan you might ask, well it was to be open yet secretive at the same time. Let me explain.&nbsp;Brittney and I plan one big trip every year that we go on to travel and see things on our bucket list&nbsp;and of course try new foods and restaurants. So one thing that was on our list was the Albuquerque Balloon Festival which was conveniently awesome yet romantic. So know here comes the secret sauce to planning the entire proposal. Brittney is a planner and likes to book things early so what's the best way to plan something secretive but yet open? You have her plan her own engagement with out her&nbsp;even knowing she is. We agree to do Albuquerque and I toss out the&nbsp;idea to ride in a hot air balloon&nbsp;&nbsp;at the event&nbsp;and she bit the bait and never looked back. I told her I would &nbsp;book the balloon ride and this allowed me&nbsp;to assure we did a private ride. Now let's&nbsp;flash forward to July 4th. Brittney is out of the county in Nicaragua with her brother Charlie, and to give her parents time to book their flights and hotel it was time to ask the parentals. They say yes and had to keep a huge secret from her for 3 months. I setup a nice dinner reservation to celebrate the proposal and to have her parents surprise her there (keep this in mind for later).&nbsp;Skip ahead 3 months Brittney and I are in Albuquerque being our usual adventurous selves and we decide the day before the ballon festival to go hiking&nbsp;&nbsp;at Petroglyph National Monument to &nbsp;see 400 to 700 year old&nbsp;drawings on huge lava rocks. Now this is were things get interesting. Brittney loves to collect cool looking rocks at every place&nbsp;we travel to and at the end of the hike she went to put the rocks in our backpack that I hauled around.&nbsp;Mind you since we left Miami I have had the&nbsp;ring in its ring box&nbsp;inside this velvet sack&nbsp;in this tiny awkward side zipper which was very snug. Of all the zippers on the backpack&nbsp;she chose this one to attempt to place the rocks in. After feeling a few tugs on the bag I asked her what is she pulling on to find out it was the velvet bag. Thankfully, I convinced her to leave it alone and to put the rocks in a different zipper AKA botched proposal saved. Now the big day has finally arrived.We wake up super early and arrive at the balloon event at 4AM to see the morning glow and meet our pilot before take off! &nbsp;At around 7:30AM Brittney and I are standing in the basket of the hot air balloon getting ready to take off with Mass Ascension on opening day of the festival.&nbsp; My mind is going crazy from fear of heights, to getting prepared to ask her to marry me, to how are me and the pilot going to surprise her with me proposing, and to getting pictures of it.&nbsp; Once we are in mid flight and the time is perfect the pilot gives me a nudge with the sun just starting to peak over the mountains in the east and hundreds of balloons flying around us. He pulls is phone out and gives me the signal the timing is good for him to take pictures.&nbsp; At this very moment I get the ring out tap Brittney on her shoulder and she turns around to see me standing there with the ring apologizing I can’t get down on one knee due to the basket size and I&nbsp;ask her to marry me.&nbsp; With a stunned look on her face she replies YES! Mind you at this very moment her parents are flying into Albuquerque and I am suppose to tell them where not to go if we leave the festival when the balloon lands. I make up an excuse for Brittney to not text her parents right away.&nbsp; However, with everything going on I mix up the landing time of her parents and they are at the hotel waiting on me to text them, which I never do. They are hungry and decide to go to a Mexican restaurant called Mary and Tito’s Café since Brittney and I have already ate there and there is no way we go back twice right? Well guess where Brittney and I went after we landed&hellip;Mary and Tito’s Café.&nbsp; We run into her parents at the restaurant and we all get a great genuine surprise and memory. I wouldn’t change it for the world.&nbsp;

The Proposal Josh's Side

Our Story

Details

Photos

Best friend for over 15 years who loves to go&nbsp;fishing on the boat, off roading,&nbsp;hangout, and everything in between. One of my main go to people when things go good or bad and has become a brother and family.

Grant Burke

Book loving, baking obsessed, polaroid loving high school best friend

Sara Buchholz

Older brother,&nbsp;hockey fanatic, and partner in crime when things break during our in home created sport games.&nbsp;

Matt Mittelberg

Dessert loving, fashion forward, best story teller, high school best friend

Lauren Darmanin

Oldest brother,&nbsp;artistic as hell, and is a dreamer who will never stop chasing what he wants in life

David Mittelberg

Fellow HGTV worshipper, mac and cheese loving, cousin and confidant&nbsp;

Kristen Frixione

Pizza loving, whiskey drinking, friend for life and college roommate

Emily Lanier

Britney's brother, who is a great person inside and out. He loves to surf and go fishing and man can he slay some fish.&nbsp;

Charlie Garabedian

College roommate, goofball, and best tree climber there is. Couldn't ask for a better friend.

Tim Schroyer

First watch loving, crossfit obsessed, grad school study buddy

Natalie Rochette

College roommate who loves to travel and take photos. Easily one of the nicest guys I know and a great friend to have.&nbsp;

Michael Humphries

Pintrest loving, wine connoisseur, grad school study buddy&nbsp;

Britnie Melton

Wedding Party

Registry

Q + A

We have blocked off a total of 20 nights worth of rooms and is first come first serve.&nbsp;The rate we locked in is good until 12/19/2018. We have blocked off rooms with king beds, double beds, as well as locked in rates for single and double room condos. The reservation code is GMW.

Brittney & Joshua

Brittney & Joshua

Registry