Every wedding page needs this article -- our story.  How we met.  How we came to be here, planning our wedding.  I seem to be elected to write ours, because Brian tells me he'll forget details.  Ours is not a flashy story, but a story of simply meshing and finding life more comfortable with than without.  There are no big romantic gestures, just quiet, happy love.  And sometimes rather explosive arguments.  This is a little long, so bear with me.

How We Met: 

Brian and  I met about six or seven years ago.  My sister got me into a gaming group on a private MU*, I played, I made a bunch of friends, I chatted with people.  Brian was one of them.  We became friends; he became someone I specifically sought out.  I added his LJ to my friends list.  We were friends, and life was good.

In September or so of 2004, Brian broke up with his then girlfriend.  I was ...interested, but he was in serious rebound and as far as I could tell, not really interested, so I moved on, had a brief and sort of pathetic romance with someone else.  That ended in February of 2005.

When We Got Involved:

This left Brian and I as close friends, both single, and, I decided, he might actually be interested in me, anyhow.  In early May, I stopped trying to be subtle.  I told him in no uncertain terms that this was me flirting with him, and plz to be acknowledging!  Much blushing and stammering followed on his part, complete with admissions he was fascinated with me but didn't think I could possibly be interested in him.  I made my interest abundantly clear at that point.  After about six months of missed connections, we finally stopped dodging the issue.

Initially, we were both a little gunshy about relationships and commitments; we were sort of toying with the notion, but wanted to wait and see where things went.

That didn't work well.  Within a couple weeks, we were pretty much inseperable, complete with 'I love you's.  You might think we rushed, but it's been four years - four years of mostly long-distance relationship - and we're still virtually inseperable.  And really, we took our time making commitments.

I have never been one to believe in matches made in heaven, or soulmates, or perfect partners.  I believed that the process of learning to love and live with someone involved more a gradual settling into compromise than some kind of instant bonding.

Brian and I are not perfect people, and we are not a perfect match.  There are places we annoy each other, but there is so, so very much more where we fit together so well.  Given all the coincidences it took for us to be in the right place at the right time to even get to know each other, let alone fall in love, I do have to believe his presence in my life is a gift from God.

There's still work to do, but I do believe our togetherness is a right thing, and /intended/.  I did not believe in matches made in heaven -- but now I think I may have been wrong. 

The Proposal: 

I think by the time we'd been dating a couple months, I think we both more or less knew that the eventual proposal would be inevitable.  I knew I'd found Mr. Right, and I knew he was every bit as attached to me.  We waited a while.  Neither of us wanted to cross any lines.  Oh, sure, we talked about generic long term plans and desires for children, and the 'm' word was occasionally said, but very carefully not in regards to Us.  I regret to say that our eventual proposal wasn't extremely romantic, from an outside perspective, though it fit for both of us.

I was driving to work; it was a beautiful day and life was good.  My car was running, my job was going well, and I was on the phone with Brian and he was making me laugh.  In response, with a big smile on my face, I said, "Brian, will you marry me?"

I didn't entirely mean to say it then; we'd both been THINKING the question for months, but were afraid to rush.  Brian didn't give me any chance to back down though.  He was all over that.  "Yes," he said.

It was a couple more years before we got our rings, and I proposed to him again -- and then he proposed to me.  Unsurprisingly to anyone who's seen us together in the past four years, we both said yes - again.

Now, as Brian's contract finally ends and we are free to move together, we are looking forward to the marriage which, rather than the destination, simply signals the next turn in our journey together.