The Proposal

This Saturday marks the 6th anniversary of the day Keith proposed. I'm not really sure how many people typically keep up with that kind of thing, but for me that day was a big deal. Keith and I had been dating for almost 4 years before he proposed, so I was more than ready for him to pop the question. We had been discussing marriage for probably a year prior to the big proposal, but didn't really have a timeline for when we would get engaged. I was in college and knew I wouldn't graduate until May of 2002, so we knew we couldn't get married before then. A couple of months before the question was popped we actually had started looking at engagement rings. One Sunday we thought we had found the one, but it just wasn't meant to be. Then we talked about designing a ring and having one specially made, but honestly that was going to cost more than either of us wanted to spend.

The big day finally came. It was a Saturday and we were out ring shopping, which obviously wasn't a new thing. We ended up at a little jeweler in Tyler. He had the perfect ring with the perfect price. So Keith bought it and we went back to his parents'. Once we got there he refused to let me have it until he personally cleaned it within an inch of its life. He's very meticulous like that. After drying it with a hair dryer (yes, you read that right), he called me into the kitchen and said, "So, do you want to marry me?". Of course I said yes, obviously. Then I immediately called my parents and sister. (A few months before this, Keith had asked my dad for my hand, old fashioned, but very sweet and appreciated by my parents, who were more than ready for him to propose.) We then told Keith's family (they weren't home at the time) and everyone was very excited for us. After a few weeks of discussing we agreed on getting married on June 1, 2002, which was 2 weeks after I graduated from college. So we weren't engaged for very long, but we dated long enough to make up for it.

Planning the wedding was a lot of fun. One of my younger sisters had already been married (and she was actually expecting her first baby when Keith and I got married), so we already had a few ideas for where to shop and things like that. Since I was still in college, most of the wedding plans were made on the weekends or on the internet. Wedding dress shopping was a lot of fun. I only tried on a couple of gowns before I found the one I wanted. Keith and I had decided we didn't want a reception so that eliminated a lot of the planning. (We didn't want a reception because of the hassles, the fact that my dad's church really didn't have a facility large enough to hold one at that time, and we just wanted to leave for our honeymoon!) We didn't really have any crazy things happen when we were planning this. Everything went pretty smoothly. I do remember that the day of our wedding we had 2 Jehovah's Witnesses show up at my parents' door and of course I was the lucky person who answered. But other than that, everything went off without a hitch. It was a great day!

I'm always a little surprised when I hear about people who knew each other less than a year before getting engaged or married, but I know everyone's story is different. While I would have loved to marry Keith sooner than we did, I know that my timing is not God's timing and it happened the way it did for a reason. Because Keith had been working for almost 3 years before we got married, we were able to buy our first house within 6 months of getting married, which was so nice. I'm not really an "apartment" person. I can barely manage to contain my frustrations with our neighbors here in our housing addition, I'm not sure what would have happened had we lived in an apartment for very long. But I probably would have been on national news for killing someone over the volume of their stereo or something like that.

In January, we will celebrate the 10th anniversary of our first date, so I'll try to remember to post around that time to share about our first date and some of our dating experiences. Just FYI, I use the term "celebrate" very loosely. I am married to a great husband, but he isn't so romantic as to really acknowledge these "anniversaries" beyond saying something along the lines of "really? I can't believe it's been that long" whenever I mention it. So, don't start thinking we're going on a cruise for the anniversary of the first time we held hands or something. But we do celebrate the important wedding anniversaries so that's the main thing.