That time we got Married and Sold our House on the Same Day

Want to hear a crazy story about that time we got married and sold our house on the same day? Well you’re in luck 😉

Last night, we were guests at the Home Stagers Atlantic REALTOR Appreciation night. We were asked to be the in-house bloggers by Avril Brown of Prep Home Staging. Here’s the thing – I don’t think Avril realizes how instrumental she was in the launch of our new lives and this blog! So, of course we said yes – and we had a great time.

Here’s the back story: Two years ago this very weekend, Dan and I were welcoming our family to Halifax for our wedding. We got married at the Halifax Club right downtown on the Sunday of the May Long Weekend. It was great.

We had only been engaged for about eight months and had planned and paid for the wedding in, what felt like, a whirlwind.

Okay, that’s not entirely true.

Wedding planning in itself is a whirlwind… but for us – it was like an F-1 tornado.

At the same time as we were planning our wedding, I’d just quit my job in radio and moved into television (yes and since then, I have moved on again!), Dan’s grandmother had just passed away, we had been nursing a very sick pet who crossed the Rainbow Bridge the day before we put our offer in on our new house, oh ya – And we were planning our wedding!!!

Why we thought doing all this within a 6 week span was a good thing, we’ll never really know. But such was our life at the time.

To make everything happen and not lose the shirts off our backs – we had to sell our little condo quickly and sell it for top dollar.

We listed it the first weekend of May and would take possession of the new house just after Canada Day.

But before that could happen our fabulous REALTOR Tracey Rudolph told me to expect a dynamic duo to come help with the sale. Avril and her photography partner Vanessa Lentz showed up one afternoon and without batting an eye, started to help me pack up all of our stuff. Toss wedding stuff in one box, design books in another, donation clothes in a bin – you name it.

I didn’t know either of them, but they made me feel so comfortable with the process at what was a very stressful time. (<— understatement of the century.)

Some furniture rearranging, fluffed pillows, bright lights and photos and our teensy condo hit the MLS. Avril and Vanessa managed to make our shoe box house look enormous and bright. It was notoriously dark and small in reality.

Tracey had showings booked practically every other day. So, we basically had all of our wedding paraphernalia living in the trunks of our cars. Seriously. Invitations, programs, decor – at one point – my wedding dress. We had to keep the condo free and clear so it would sell.

Three weeks went by and still nothing. We were beginning to think we’d made a huge mistake and we’d have to pull out of escrow on the new house. It was hard to have that hanging over us as we got closer to the wedding. I realize now that I was a bride-to-be who talked more about real estate returns than peonies or harp music. Ironic, considering to this day, I’m not a huge wedding person 🙂

We vowed to each other that the ONE day we wouldn’t talk about the sale was going to be our actual wedding day.

BUT THEN – as my Mom was helping me lace up my dress and my cousins and niece were sipping virgin mimosas, my phone rang. Tracey had sold the condo. And in an hour, we were getting married.

I cried before the ceremony even began.

My mother sent my little brother down the hall as a ‘runner’ to deliver the condo news to the rest of the family. I heard cheering.

It certainly made for a memorable and relieving day.

And it most definitely set us up for what has turned out to be the wildest adventure of our lives.

All this to say, there is likely NO WAY this would have happened with out our SUPER team of Avril, Tracey and Vanessa. They took the whole process in their own hands and let us focus on what really mattered. We trusted them and they came through for us with flying colours. Despite the fact that Dan and I sort of exist in the ‘interiors’ space – we will NEVER sell a property without first consulting a professional home stager like Avril. It’s just the best way to remove emotion from the process and make the right sale.

For more information about finding a Home Stager – check out their website.