On Getting Engaged

Six years ago today, I said 'I do' to the love of my life.

No, I didn't have a mutant body with huge boobs and linebacker shoulders when it happened. And no, we didn't get married on the beach. The above picture is one of those souvenir photos which we had taken as a joke when we went to Vegas back in our dating days. The week before we got engaged, to be exact.

Will and I didn't plan on getting engaged, it just sort of happened. (That's how most things are when it comes to the two of us - ever since the night we sat next to each other in the Dublin airport and ended up two smitten kittens.) But we'd been happy together in the UK for four months and miserable during the two months between the end of my study abroad program and when he could visit me in America. We just missed each other too much.

When he came out to visit me, we both thought, Well, this is it. We'll either get married or break up. The long distance and expense of traveling between England and America every time we wanted to see each other was just too expensive and hard. We had the above picture taken while in Vegas, and though I think I look a little bit like a transvestite in the picture, we just thought it fit.

Ten minutes after taking the picture, we went looking for rings...

And found the perfect one.

Well let me just say, that scared the daylights out of both of us. We were young, still in college, living in separate countries, and to be honest, we didn't really know each other very well. Will and I are both impulsive and neither of us takes marriage vows lightly... so we hurriedly left the shop.

The next week, he was due to fly back to England and we didn't have a single doubt in our heads. My roommate and I threw a party on his last night in town, and after a few gulps of liquid courage for both of us, he got on his knee (yes, he really did!) and proposed.

(I'll never forget that this song was playing in the next room. I don't actually remember the words he said as he proposed, but I do remember the background music my roommate had playing, haha)



Of course I said yes. Our friends at the party must have thought we were a little bit crazy when we made the WE'RE GETTING MARRIED! announcement.

Taking Will to the airport the next morning, watching him leave, was one of the hardest things I've ever done - much like saying goodbye after my study abroad program ended. Will and I didn't see each other until a few months later, when he said goodbye to his home and flew back to mine, wedding suit in hand...

and the rest is history!

Happy anniversary to you, Will! I'm glad we're both impulsive and crazy, because these last six years have been amazing, and I look forward to a hundred more!

xoxo,