The Engagement & Wedding

One day Nathan wakes up and decides he is ready to get married. I am not sure of his entire thought process, but he has told me that one day he came to the realization that he wanted to share his entire life with me. I was the one that if he had good news, he wanted to share it with first, he wanted my opinion on stuff and he thought I was just plain fun. I am all for being fun, but I am not sure why when I read our adoption home study that fun was the one thing he kept saying about me - she's fun. What am I a circus elephant?

I had been giving my Dad plenty of warning that he could be receiving a phone call some time soon. I can't say that I blame him for his "I'll believe it when I get the phone call" attitude. We had been dating 7 years! I just thought that 7 years was time enough for him to adequately prepare for "the call." Nathan had purchased the ring and was trying to get my Dad, who suddenly was unavailable, on the phone. Finally, he reached him, asked his question and my Dad said something similar to "I have a lot of questions for you and I am not prepared, can you call back?" Do you believe that? Seven years and he was not prepared. Of course, Nathan complied. They made a time to talk a few days later. The date March 31. So what is the big deal about March 31? When you have been dating someone for this long the last day on the calendar you want to propose is April 1!

They talked and Dad gave his blessing. Nathan called me at home (about 10:00 at night mind you) and said that he spoke with my Dad and it did not go well, could I please come to his house so we could talk. I made it to his house in record time. He started telling me about their conversation and how, by the way, he was joking, it went well. I knew the proposal was coming, but I didn't expect it that night. There was a gift bag on his dining room table. I asked what it was and he said it was a belated birthday present for me and I could open it if I wanted. Of course, I did. Inside was a giant paper weight shaped like a diamond ring. We were joking about how I could show it to the girls at work and say "Look, he finally got me a diamond ring." Then he said "Or you could show them this" and he pulled out the most beautiful engagement ring I had seen in my entire life! Needless to say I was ecstatic. He got down on one knee right there in his kitchen (now our kitchen) and asked me to marry him. He says this was not what he had planned, but he knew he could not propose on April 1 and that he could not wait any longer.

I guess he thought we could just insta-plan a wedding. I had no idea what I wanted in a wedding (another area that I should have had time enough to plan but I didn't). It all came together and we were married 7 months later. I loved our wedding. It was so "us." We had a fall wedding. Our families helped us tremendously. We loved it that our whole family was involved. My nieces were flower girls, Nathan's niece was our flower baby (she was born in September and our wedding was in November), Nathan's sister did a reading and we carried on a tradition that she had started of having a candle lighting ceremony at our wedding. You know the kind like we have on Christmas Eve where everyone lights each others candles. We had great music hand picked by Nathan and his friend, our Music Pastor, Keith.

The reception was awesome. We decorated with mums, spray painted pumpkins and ferns. On the bride and groom's tables we had a picture of our respective parents on their wedding day cutting their cake and on each of the guests tables their were quotes about love from books, movies and famous people. There was so much food and we had a great time talking with all of our favorite people who came to celebrate with us this long awaited event.

That was the happiest day of my life. I know this sounds sappy, but I love being Nathan's wife. I had someone who tried to get me to sell make up for the company she was selling for. Her line was "You could have the life you always wanted." I looked at her and said "Honey, I didn't date this guy for seven years for nothing, I have the life I always wanted, it has nothing to do with make up." Needless to say, she didn't ask me again.

You know what they say, "After every wedding, there comes a marriage." Stay tuned...