–Jenn

-Jenn

“I knew he was the one…”

“There are a million moments I could attribute to being “the one” when I knew Ben was the one.  A lot of those moments could be when other people said he should be the one, including my sister the Christmas after Ben and I started dating (we had only started dating the spring of that year).  My sister had had a few cocktails and suggested we get married.  Ben and I weren’t phased by her comment…perhaps another sign.

The real moment I had that “feeling” was the next spring, about a year after we’d been together when I called him to see if he wanted to help me move a friend into a new house at 6am one Saturday.  Ben was in law school spending long weeks studying and not super inclined to wake early on a Saturday.  However, he is someone who finds a lot of joy in manual labor so I thought I’d at least ask. He responded with a genuine “I would LOVE to help them,” like that’s the only thing he would want to do that day or any day for that matter.  I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised because of course Ben would want to help – I learned that about him long before this moment.  But I remember thinking that time, “This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.  I want to spend it with someone who gets so much joy from helping others.”

I think even when I tell Ben that story, he kind of rolls his eyes like “there has GOT to be some other moment,” but I honestly knew right then.  However, to appease anyone else that rolls his or her eyes as well, I also knew because when he looks at me, from the day I met him and even today, I know I’m special.”

- Shelby

at Lakeway Resort

“Most of All, I Remember…”

“I knew I wanted to marry Zach the first time he called me. We had talked via text message and Facebook in many attempts to try to get coffee or dinner for over a month before and nothing had transpired. A few weeks had passed by since I had last been in contact with Zach and thought that our lives were just too busy for each other. Then one fall night as I was taking my puppy, Leo, for a walk, I received a phone call that in essence, changed my life. I often ask Zach what made him randomly pick up the phone that night and he can never recall what it was.

Zach and I ended up talking for four hours that night. We had many of the same interests, thought the same way politically, and had many of the same aspirations in life. We made firm plans to see each other the following Friday. Upon ending the conversation at 2 am, I knew that I was going to marry Zach – of course I never told him this until after he proposed.

A month and a half later, Zach traveled to Texas with me for Thanksgiving and met my family for the first time. I never shared with my dad that Zach was “the one”, but when we left to return to Colorado, my dad told my mother, “she is going to marry him”. Even seeing Zach and I together for the first time, it was evident to my dad that Zach would be the one I would share my life with forever. Reflecting on this, it is nice to know that I am not the only one who felt this prematurely. It is funny how things work out, but we both know that us being brought together was done on purpose by God – so now I do know I wasn’t crazy in predicting my future husband too soon as my dad and God both knew!”

- Lauren

–Jenn

at Barton Creek Resort

“Most of all, I remember…”

“Our wedding weekend was the most amazing and memorable time that we will cherish forever.  We felt blessed to exchange vows under the most gorgeous chappah.  We also felt so lucky to have friends and family there with us from all over the world dancing the night away.  We truly enjoyed every moment of the weekend from getting ready to seeing each other for the first time to the ceremony to our first dance to a night full of energy.”

–Lindsay

at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church and River Oaks Country Club

“Most of all, I remember…”

“Lizzy and I met in Washington D.C. on our way down to do Peace Corps Panama in August 2009.  It just happened that she was the first person I met during an ice breaker and then once in Panama, she and I lived next door to each other for the first 3 months.  During that time we would walk to class together, do our homework and just hang out and talk.  It was those first conversations and simple / amazing moments that started everything.  We quickly became best friends and now I can say that I’m engaged and going to marry my best friend.  Pretty cool, huh?

Anyways, after those first couple months of training and living right next door we both moved to our respective communities, which just happened to be 11 hours door to door away from each other.  It just so happens that neither one of us had cell phone reception either…

So for that next year we spent in Panama we would both hike up our mountains (45 minutes for her, just 30 for me) to talk every other day.  On top of that, every 10 days or so we would hike out of our sites (1 hour for her, 2 hours for me), hop on our respective buses and meet up in Panama City.

Aside from those times we also managed to spend many memorable moments together at Thanksgiving, Christmas, Carnival, Peace Corps Trainings and Seminars and vacations to the U.S. together.  It was an amazing year leading up to one of the most nerve-racking and awesome moments in my life.  But I’ll let Lizzy tell that part of our story.”

–Tom

“On the morning on July 1st, Tom made me breakfast, and we (ironically enough, watched The Proposal…he said that part was not planned, but definitely a nice touch). Then just causally Tom said, ” Lets do lunch in the city.” He told me that he made reservations, but I was just taking my time getting ready.  I wasn’t even going to put on makeup because Tom said that it was just so casual (he was doing his best to throw me off, which worked because I HAD NO IDEA what was going on). He also told me to pack a bag because we would probably going out in New York with his friends and we would crash with one of them. So I grabbed a t-shirt and toothbrush…thinking we would be back the next morning. Tom causally said “you might want to bring more in case we stay longer.” I was still just taking my sweet time (Tom had made reservations 2 months in advance) and he was starting to get nervous. I had no idea why we were in such a rush. But I started to pick up the pace and packed a bag.

We drove to upper Manhattan to an amazing restaurant called New Leaf that is located in the Cloisters gardens (looks like Central Park put more flowers and less people). We had a great lunch, and then we took a walk through the gardens. The weather was BEAUTIFUL!!! It was sunny with such a great breeze. Tom and I stopped at this quiet spot. He gave me a hug and said “I want to do this forever”…I was still COMPLETELY clueless…I was like “Of course, me too!”

Then he pulled out the ring, and the sweet nervous Tom could only get out the words “will you marry me?”

I was in COMPLETE shock. I had NO IDEA it was happening now but of course, I said YES I WILL MARRY YOU! And so we were engaged!!!

Also, we weren’t crashing at one of Tom’s friend’s apartments, Tom had booked a hotel room for us at the Hotel Roger Williams. Everyone at the hotel knew what was going on and kept congratulating us. We get up to the room and there are bottles of my favorite champagne and dozen long stem roses. AGAIN, I was BLOWN away!! He told me that we had dinner reservations at 7:00 so we needed to head out soon. So we had a glass of champagne, and I changed into a party dress that Tom had packed for me. We were having dinner at La Lanterna Caffe. At this point, I had been trying to call my parents to tell them that we were engaged, but I could not reach them. Tom just blew me off telling me that we would talk to them after dinner. Tom and I walked into dinner and MY PARENTS were sitting at the table with Tom’s parents!!!! I just started crying. I couldn’t believe they were there. Tom flew them in and booked them a hotel room months ago. I was just so happy both families sitting and celebrating the engagement. It was great.

The next morning, my sister Lacey bought a ticket to come celebrate as well. Tom and I spent the day calling friends and just soaking up the special moment. Tom had also planned a small engagement dinner for some of his friends and family, and my family at Freemans. Tom’s best friend from New York put together a menu for the party and at the top of the menu it said “Congratulations Tom and Lizzy!” Tom had put so much planning into every moment of this weekend.

Saturday morning, Tom’s parents, brother, sister, grandma, aunt, and other grandma and my parents and sister went to Tom’s parents house in small town New Jersey for a catered brunch. It was so amazing to have all the families spending quality time together sitting on the porch.

Since November 2010, we have been back in the U.S. and after spending time with family in Houston, Memphis, Washington D.C. and New Jersey we have happily settled into our lives in New York City.”

–Lizzy

“When Mark and I planned a vacation to Hawaii in late 2009, I had a feeling that he might pop the question as we had been dating for five years at the time and he was acting a little strange the month before our trip.  Since I thought this might be a possibility, I made sure to pack some cute outfits for the trip so that I would be picture ready when the time actually came.  We were in Kauai first and it didn’t happen.  Then, we went to Maui for the last four days of our vacation.  By the time it started getting closer to our trip’s end, I decided he wasn’t going to propose, so I put away all my cute outfits and broke out the old tank tops and shorts from my suitcase.

The last full day he insisted that we go on a sunset sail and I told him I preferred to just lounge around, but he really acted like his heart was set on the sunset sail so we went.  At the end of the sail, we got dropped off at the beach.  After the rest of the crowd left, he started acting very nervous so then I knew he was about to do it.  I later found out that he had been carrying the loose ring in his pocket the entire trip waiting for the right moment.  I did wonder why he wore the same pair of shorts the entire trip, but then he explained that they were his only shorts with very deep pockets.”

–Abril

at Austin Seventy-One

“Most of all, I remember…”

“Having our first conversation immediately after we were married.  It was just the two of us, for the first (and only) time that day, actually week.  It had all felt so strange to me that the person with whom I have shared everything for the past several years–every stress, sadness, happiness, everything–was supposed to stay isolated from me for most of the day on one of the biggest days of our life!  I had so much that I wanted to talk to him about! I felt so many emotions and wanted to tell him so many things that day. Just finally being able to talk and hold his hand and give him a huge hug was one of the happiest feelings I had that day.  A glass of champagne and beautiful Austin sunset didn’t hurt either ” –Morgan

“Most of all, I remember…”

1.  Seeing Morgan and her dad come around the corner and towards me down the aisle.  For the first time all day I felt no stress.  I knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
2. Snacking on hors d’oeuvres immediately after the ceremony.  I remember thinking “this is my first conversation with my wife!”
3.  Our first dance.  There was no one else in the room.”  –Barry