Valentine's Day week: our story, part IV.

Wanna catch-up? Read part I, part II, and part III.

He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. And suddenly it didn't matter that it was raining. Or cold. Or muddy. It was beautiful and perfect. And I didn't hesitate to say "yes".

We had a 20 month engagement. I started this blog and also spent those 20 months at bridal expos, and online, and obsessed with flowers and cakes and dresses and tablecloths. Like what? I was excited for the day, yes -- but also for our marriage. And I wanted to make sure that our marriage got off to the right start. A perfect start.

I dragged Sean from venue to venue, talked about DJs & music and catering and decorations and even he started to think I was crazy. By mid-2010 most of the big items on the wedding list were completed even though our wedding wasn't until summer 2011. We spent the summer together going on vacations, being in other people's weddings, and taking our engagement pictures. And Sean started getting excited.

Toward the end of 2010 we realized we would have to make some changes to our living situation if we had any chance of saving up and paying for a wedding/our lives together. We tried finding a cheaper place to live and decided on living with Sean's parents for the next year. So after two years of living just the two of us, we moved yet again.

Our parents threw us a surprise engagement party a year after we got engaged. We were so excited and so surprised and things started feeling real.

Once 2011 rolled around we were both so busy; planning the wedding, working full-time, saving money, Sean was busy with the band and for a little bit we forgot to put each other first. It was sad. But we worked through it together and got on the right track again.

We had all the traditional pre-wedding activities; showers, parties, rehearsal dinner, everything. And with every celebration we got more excited and shared more moments together, and our conversations became less about the day and more about the next fifty years together.

This is not to say our time wasn't partly consumed by wedding crafts, and painting plaques and forcing Sean to take pictures with me. Because part of our time was spent this way. But we also spent our days together laughing, our nights by the fire making s'mores, and our weekends away with family.

On July 16, 2011, on what was sure to be the hottest day of the year we got married under the sun, and the 90 degree weather. We were sweating, and laughing, and we held hands the entire time. We didn't stumble on our vows, we never took our eyes off each other and it was one of those moments where you think about everything and nothing all at once.

While writing our story, I asked Sean if I should stop writing after our wedding, he quickly asked "what... so people think our story is over after the wedding?". To that, I say "no"... our story didn't end with our wedding. Ours is an on-going story that, for now, will have to be continued.