How it all started
I was not one of those little girls who dreamed about one day becoming a bride. Sure, I'd play dress-up and marry off my Barbies like most girls, but I was just as likely to build a fort or go roller skating or hatch elaborate Barbie spy agency plots.
Over the years, I've attended dozens of weddings and along the way I always took mental notes of my likes and dislikes. But it wasn't until my relationship with Tim started to get serious that I actually started to envision myself getting married and being a bride.
We started dating in Sept. 2006 after "meeting" on the Web site OkCupid. For about eight months, we carried on a long-distance relationship-- he was in Atlanta, working at an animation studio and finishing his MFA and I was working as an arts and entertainment journalist in Macon, Ga. We'd drive back and forth on the weekends and spend the intervening days talking on the phone, e-mailing and IMing.
In August 2007, a few months after I moved to Atlanta to change careers (bye-bye, journalism, hello, PR!) and be with Tim, he suggested that we go to a local bridal expo. "Seriously?" I said to him. "Are you absolutely sure you want to go?" Tim said his friends had been to one, and it was really fun.
I felt like a fraud putting on the Bride sticker and Tim giggled as he put on his matching Groom one. But we had fun investigating all of the booths-- tasting the cakes was probably my favorite part. That, and watching the fashion show, which in my mind became more of a What Not To Wear show than anything else.
That day planted the seed in my mind that we could get engaged soon. How soon, I did not know. We had been discussing marriage for a while, but specifics were not yet part of the picture. In the meantime, I furtively started visiting sites like Weddingbee. Hey, might as well start gathering ideas, right?
Our first anniversary came and went in September. Then came the fall/winter holidays and Valentine's Day. No proposal. March brought the wedding of two dear friends in which Tim was a groomsman. While we were at the rehearsal dinner, one of my close friends texted me to tell me she had gotten engaged. Even though Tim and I were both three sheets to the wind, my brain decided it was a good idea to have "the talk" when we got back to the hotel room that night. Uh oh.
I didn't give any ultimatums, but I did tell Tim I wouldn't wait around forever either. At 32, I'm no spring chicken, and if I want to have children, I need to start in the next few years.
I cried. I knew, deep in my heart, that I did not want to be with anyone else. I don't have the greatest romantic track record, but things with Tim have always been different. Better, sunnier, funnier-- we just mesh together so well.
In the next month or so, I had breast reduction surgery. My birthday came and went. The very next week, I had a dream that T. and I had been in a big fight, and that I had wanted to throw my engagement ring at him, but he hadn't given it to me yet. In the dream, the ring was in a box sitting on top of the TV. I told him about the dream, laughing and grateful that we weren't really on the outs.
A few days later, Tim told me he had finished a cartoon that he had been working on for the past week or so. (He has a line of animated e-cards. He also works for a studio in town on some Adult Swim cartoons.) He was insistent on porting the cartoon over to our TV. I usually watch them on my computer, but I didn't think it anything unusual.
T. couldn't make it work though, so I parked myself in front of his computer to watch his latest missive. I'll let it speak for itself.
Trickery (a wedding proposal) from vishass on Vimeo. As soon as I realized what was going on, I burst into tears of shock and joy. When I turned my head, T. was down on one knee, jewelry box in hand. I sputtered out, of course! Yes!
It was one of the greatest moments of my life.
And I can't wait to tell you all about planning the next great moments in our lives.
Over the years, I've attended dozens of weddings and along the way I always took mental notes of my likes and dislikes. But it wasn't until my relationship with Tim started to get serious that I actually started to envision myself getting married and being a bride.
We started dating in Sept. 2006 after "meeting" on the Web site OkCupid. For about eight months, we carried on a long-distance relationship-- he was in Atlanta, working at an animation studio and finishing his MFA and I was working as an arts and entertainment journalist in Macon, Ga. We'd drive back and forth on the weekends and spend the intervening days talking on the phone, e-mailing and IMing.
In August 2007, a few months after I moved to Atlanta to change careers (bye-bye, journalism, hello, PR!) and be with Tim, he suggested that we go to a local bridal expo. "Seriously?" I said to him. "Are you absolutely sure you want to go?" Tim said his friends had been to one, and it was really fun.
I felt like a fraud putting on the Bride sticker and Tim giggled as he put on his matching Groom one. But we had fun investigating all of the booths-- tasting the cakes was probably my favorite part. That, and watching the fashion show, which in my mind became more of a What Not To Wear show than anything else.
That day planted the seed in my mind that we could get engaged soon. How soon, I did not know. We had been discussing marriage for a while, but specifics were not yet part of the picture. In the meantime, I furtively started visiting sites like Weddingbee. Hey, might as well start gathering ideas, right?
Our first anniversary came and went in September. Then came the fall/winter holidays and Valentine's Day. No proposal. March brought the wedding of two dear friends in which Tim was a groomsman. While we were at the rehearsal dinner, one of my close friends texted me to tell me she had gotten engaged. Even though Tim and I were both three sheets to the wind, my brain decided it was a good idea to have "the talk" when we got back to the hotel room that night. Uh oh.
I didn't give any ultimatums, but I did tell Tim I wouldn't wait around forever either. At 32, I'm no spring chicken, and if I want to have children, I need to start in the next few years.
I cried. I knew, deep in my heart, that I did not want to be with anyone else. I don't have the greatest romantic track record, but things with Tim have always been different. Better, sunnier, funnier-- we just mesh together so well.
In the next month or so, I had breast reduction surgery. My birthday came and went. The very next week, I had a dream that T. and I had been in a big fight, and that I had wanted to throw my engagement ring at him, but he hadn't given it to me yet. In the dream, the ring was in a box sitting on top of the TV. I told him about the dream, laughing and grateful that we weren't really on the outs.
A few days later, Tim told me he had finished a cartoon that he had been working on for the past week or so. (He has a line of animated e-cards. He also works for a studio in town on some Adult Swim cartoons.) He was insistent on porting the cartoon over to our TV. I usually watch them on my computer, but I didn't think it anything unusual.
T. couldn't make it work though, so I parked myself in front of his computer to watch his latest missive. I'll let it speak for itself.
Trickery (a wedding proposal) from vishass on Vimeo. As soon as I realized what was going on, I burst into tears of shock and joy. When I turned my head, T. was down on one knee, jewelry box in hand. I sputtered out, of course! Yes!
It was one of the greatest moments of my life.
And I can't wait to tell you all about planning the next great moments in our lives.