Today I'm linking up with Becky from Mrs. To Mama for her Show and Tell Monday!
This week, the questions are all about engagements and marriage, something I've had on my brain for the last 10 months.
1. Are you married? If so when did you get married, and tell us about your special day. If not? How would you describe your dream wedding?
We actually just got married on August 4th, so about 23 days now! We got married in the town where I grew up and went to school in, Columbia, Missouri.
(We don't have our professional pictures back yet so I'll have to manage with pictures taken from friends and family.)
We got married at the Riechmann Indoor Pavilion in Stephen's Park.
My dad was our officiant which was amazing. He gave up the perfect ceremony including inside jokes for both of us and a "dad's warning" for Keegan.
We had our closest friends and family stand up with us. My two sisters were my maid of honor and one of my bridesmaids and I also had Keegan's cousin and a close friend. Keegan had his best friend stand up as his best man (in a kilt!) as well as his brother and three close friends. We couldn't have asked for a better bridal party.
We partied down for hours until we had our grand exit in Keegan's baby, his 1971 Corvette.
(Unfortunately no one got a picture from the wedding so this'll have to do until we get the pro pictures back.)
After the wedding, we went back to the hotel and hung out with our friends until the wee hours of the night. While it's not "traditonal," our friends are scattered throughout the states so we wanted to spend as much time with them as we could.
On Tuesday, August 7, we left for Gatlinburg, TN for our honeymoon. We stayed in a cabin in the mountains for 5 nights which was amazing. After all of the craziness of the wedding, having a week without internet or cell phones was awesome. We explored, went white water rafting and just enjoyed being together.
2. Show us some wedding pictures. Either yours or of some that you love.
Again, I don't have our professional pictures yet so here are some of the ones that our friends and families took:
My mom giving me away
Best man reading a passage
Maid of honor reading a passage
Best man giving his speech, probably the nicest thing he's ever said to me.
Newlyweds!
3. How about the engagement? Tell us your story. If not engaged, what's your dream proposal?
Keegan proposed on October 8, 2011. I've already written about our engagement story before, so I'll just paraphrase from that:
Keegan and I had spent the entire day looking for houses. After we were done with our relator, we went over to a friend's house to play with their dogs (little did I know these friends were in on the entire thing!) After about an hour, we left the puppies to go eat dinner. We had an amazing dinner at an upscale restaurant (or at least upscale for our tiny Mississippi town,) and Keegan even let me have dessert. Keegan never lets me have dessert so automatically, I thought something was up. He assured me that he just wanted to celebrate our first day of house hunting. I went along with that excuse because it seemed plausible and hey, I got dessert out of it.
After dinner, we hopped in the car and went back to our apartment. I hoped in the shower and then into some comfy clothes. As I found out later, there were shenanigans occurring while I was in the shower which I'll get to later. When I came out into the living room, Keegan suggested that we go for a drive, something we like to do to get to know our new town better (we had just moved to SmallTown, Mississippi in May 2011.) I agreed and we hopped into his car and started driving. After a few minutes, we arrived at a lake. We parked the car and walked, under the stars, onto the dock. We made small talk for a bit and while I was looking out at the lake, Keegan got out the ring he had hidden in his pocket all day. He whispered my name and I turn around to find him on one knee. He asks, "Will you marry me?" My hand flew to my mouth and I start laughing and crying at the same time. I pull Keegan up off his knee into a huge hug and he asks, "Is that a yes?" I nodded my head still laughing and we stood for a while under the stars while he tells me what happened while I was in the shower.
Apparently the entire week before we got engaged, Keegan had been trying to get a hold of my dad to ask for his permission, but had no luck. While I was in the shower, Keegan called my mom's cell phone to try and get a hold of him. She said my dad was busy, but Keegan pressed upon her how important it was that he talk to him. My dad was apparently in the shower, so my mom went to go get him thinking something was wrong with me. I guess Keegan asked my dad for my hand in marriage while my dad was in the shower. Romantic huh?
Picture of the ring from our engagement session:
And a close up from Kay's website:
4. Show us your wedding rings or an engagement photo! If not engaged/married ... show us your "dream" ring.
Well, we're still waiting on our professional pictures so you get engagement photos. They were taken by one of my friends from college around the town I grew up in and went to college in as well as the town Keegan went to college in. Hopefully I can update this soon with real wedding pictures!
5. Tell us why you think marriage doesn't work out for so many? What can we do to make things last?
Honestly, I think that marriages don't last because people rush into it too quickly. It seems like couples are getting hitched younger and younger without being established in their own separate lives. I know that I had felt pressure to get married while Keegan and I were still in college. We talked it over and we decided that since Keegan would be moving to another state to start a job, we would wait and see how that went before we got engaged. I moved with him and I'm so glad that we waited. Moving hundreds of miles away from all of our friends and family was such a big change that I don't think I could have concentrated on planning a wedding at the same time. Just being boyfriend/girlfriend during that time allowed us to become so much closer and really rely on each other. The move stressed our relationship a little bit, but it also made us become much closer than we ever were before. After about 5 months of living together, we both felt that we stand to live with each other for the rest of our lives and Keegan popped the question.
To make things last, I honestly think that communication is the key. I'm not one to talk about my feelings to someone else, but Keegan has helped me learn that I need to do that. If I'm upset at him, it's better for me to talk to him about why I'm upset instead of just letting it stew inside. Once things are out in the open, we can talk them through and the problem usually goes away quickly. Of course supporting each other is a huge factor as well. Things like job changes, moving and children can really shake up a relationship if each person isn't there to support the other.
Thanks to Becky for hosting this! I love reading everyone's wedding and engagement stories. If you want to know more about my wedding, you can go to my wedding blog, Clover & Leaf.
*All pictures above are personal unless otherwise noted.*
