Happy anniversary to us!

To celebrate, here's our proposal story:

To set the stage, we had already been "unofficially" engaged for about 3 months. We had met with a priest, set a date, reserved the major vendors, picked out our rings, the whole shebang. But J had never said the 4 magic words. I didn't care. When your Taoist boyfriend goes with you to chat with a Catholic priest about getting married, and starts plunking down money for non-refundable deposits, you know he's serious. My mom didn't get an engagement ring until her 5th wedding anniversary. I could wait ;)

We were living in different states at the time, and swapping weekends to visit each other, and it was my turn. J took me for an afternoon in this lovely town where we go to a Celtic festival every fall. And every time, we have our picture taken in front of a big stone Celtic cross. On this particularly hot summer day, we had some lunch and J said we should "walk it off". Mind you, it's in the mid 90s with high humidity. I thought he was nuts.

We get to the spot where the cross usually stands. It's gone, and he's crushed. I can't understand what the big deal is. Unbeknownst to me, he's reaching into his pocket for the ring, when I see a landscaping sign on the ground surrounded by weeds. Just before he pulls out the ring, I say, "Nice landscaping! Look at all the weeds!" Totally killed the mood. Oops.

So J suggests we walk down to the river. Next thing I know, he's on a knee with my ring asking me to be his wife. Despite the fact that the wedding was well on its way to happening, I cried like a baby, squealed every time I looked at the stone, and of course said yes.

Now, my dad is an old-fashioned guy, and said no one was marrying his daughter until Dad had met him and given his blessing. My first words after I regained my composure were, "You have to call my Dad." Their conversation was my favorite part of the day.

J: "Hi, your daughter says I have to ask you to marry her."

D: "Yep"

J: "Well, I'm asking."

D: "OK"

Then they got all schmoopy, we filled my mom in on the news, and I promised to take pictures.

112 days later, we were married.

Thanks J, for asking me to be your wife. I've enjoyed all 1096 days of it so far, and can't wait for tomorrow...