Our Story...part one.

I originally published this post in March of 2012.  Since I've been a horribly slacking blogger lately, and more importantly, it's now TWO WEEKS til my Big Day, I decided to re-share it all with you now. 

Here is my proposal story.

I hope you love it :)

...

You know I’m newly engaged and beginning to plan the Big Day, but of course you always have to know how the proposal went.  It’s the most romantic part, isn’t it?  And really, the biggest deal, since it’s the beginning of the rest of it. 

Firstly, I was the one to propose. 

I don’t know exactly what it was that tipped the scales.  I’ve known to the deepest part of me that he is my soulmate.  My absolute other half.  We were friends for ages before we started dating, beginning in high school and then just with MySpace and social networking.  Then came the fateful night that led to the dating…we ran into each other at a rock show.  Which led to more talking, then the invite to hang out, then the rest happened. 

In April of 2010, he officially moved in with me.  We redecorated my little house a bit, and I gave him a man cave so he could have his own room (because I know how badly everyone needs private space…I know I do!).  So as it’s been occurring to us that we’ve successfully lived together for nearly a year, we’ve been making more and more jokes about getting married eventually and never really thought much about it.  We never figured there was a reason to rush it.   But if there's no reason to rush it, then there's also no reason to keep waiting.  Everyone could always use more money or a better job, but that's not a real enough reason to not marry your soulmate.  All of that stuff can change at any moment anyway, no matter how rich or poor you are. The only real reason I could even think up to NOT propose to him was that “the guy should be the one to propose”.  But why?  Nothing about us is traditional to begin with.  We’ve already been through rich & poor, and sickness and health.  And survived it. 

And then I found these:

http://spiffingjewelry.etsy.com/

Since my fiancé is such a huge Star Wars fan, I HAD to do it.  So I asked him. In my car. In our driveway. At approximately four am on a Saturday night (Sunday morning?)

And he said YES.

Bridal Showers: The Dirty Secret...

Ok, there's not really a dirty secret.

But let me tell ya, I was wholly unprepared for it.

I have a tendency to get really bad anxiety around large groups of people at any time, let alone when I personally am the center of attention.  {you don't even know how nervous i used to get during chorus concerts in high school...ughh}  And a bridal shower, when you're the bride...well. Wow.

1: Everyone wants to say hi.  And some of them want to chat your ear off forever, not realizing there's a million other people who want to say hi.

2: Some people will not even bother to say hi.  You will find this highly annoying and rude, though you were already annoyed with saying hi to everyone else.

3: Everyone just wants food and to see their gift opened.  They really don't care about anything else.  {ok so that's how i feel at parties...sue me! LOL}

4: You will be totally overwhelmed by people's generosity.  And completely underwhelmed by some.

5:  The cake at your shower will be the most highly anticipated dessert until the wedding day.

6:  There will be young children trying to help you rip open each and every gift.  And they'll shout loudly to tell you what their parents got you.  It's pretty hilarious.

I am one of those people who tends to need to be all OCD about every little detail.  I actually didn't even lend any input into my shower, except for my venue preference and a guest list.  Everyone was honestly was surprised that I didn't tweak out over anything {excepting the part where my fiance didn't even show up to help open gifts at the end...he's never living that down.} 

I was completely unprepared for the awesomeness that awaited me.  Everyone was there for me, to celebrate my joy and my fiance's.  I couldn't believe the mountain of gifts we received, it seriously took three vehicles to cart them all to my house!  I was completely in awe.

That being said, I was also amazed by these things:
1: We received zero repeat gifts.  Not that that is a bad thing, but EVERY single shower I've been to {including one that only 12 people were at!} has had at least one large gift be repeated. 
2:  We received no personalized gifts.  Again, not a bad thing, as it's not exactly our style, but there's always someone who gets something from Things Remembered for you. Always!
3: We were given very few gift cards.  Only 3 actually.  Definitely not a bad thing, but again, at every shower there seems to be a group of people who didn't have a chance to buy a gift or weren't sure what to get and so they give you a gift card...not the case at my shower!

All these things said - pretty much every single item on our registry ended up in our possession!  A definite rarity, to be sure!

Thank you so much to my sisters and my mom for throwing such an amazing shower for me!
And my bridesmaids for helping out!!
:)