Show and Tell-Going to the Chapel

 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?

Mike and I have been married for 4.5 years. We had a winter wedding on 2/2/08 when I was the ripe old age of 20. We were married in my hometown and then had the reception about 45 minutes away. I was a huge procrastinator when it came to making decisions and didn't even order the invitations for our wedding until the end of December. Which is a good thing because we had to change the date from 2/23 to 2/2. In the middle of December my brother (who was one of the best men) told me that he might be in the field (He was in the Marines) on the 23rd and wouldn't be able to make it to our wedding. Thanks for the short notice....but luckily everything worked out and the only person that couldn't change the date was our photographer (who was a friend of the family) but luckily we had a back-up. We also had a little fiasco with the flowers. I bought some offline that "look and feel real" and I hated them. They were white calla lillies and the tips were supposed to be dipped in a "cranberry" color but it looked more like fuchsia.  They didn't arrive until Thursday before the wedding (the day of my bachelorette party) and when I picked up the grooms boutonniere the "cranberry" part of it rubbed off. The lady shipped out more flowers and they didn't arrive until like an hour before the ceremony. I definitely wish we would have had different flowers. For the most part I am happy with our wedding, but there are 1000 things I would do different now; thanks to Pinterest. Darn you Pinterest. 

Show us some wedding pictures. Either yours or of some that you love.

I told my parents this was the last time they could tell me what to do!

The Flowers. Oh and my adorable niece.

Our wedding party

 How about the engagement? Tell us your story. If not engaged, what's your dream proposal?

I was living in North Carolina when Mike and I got engaged. Mike and my best friend Andrea were going to drive down and surprise me for a week, but little did he know I was planning to drive up and surprise him at the same time. I drove up the day before he and Andrea were supposed to leave and surprised him at his dads house. He had no idea, it was priceless!! I kind of knew that the proposal was coming and I remember waking up the morning of that day and thinking to myself "Am I ready for this? Is this what I want? Is this the day my life changes forever? Is this what I want to be wearing the day I get engaged?" It felt like time was moving in slow motion when I was getting ready to leave to go over to his house. When I got there I went up to his room and he said he had something to show me. He had made a scrapbook of all the years that we had been dating. Which at that time had been over 5 years. I took my sweet time as I flipped the pages knowing what was coming. On the last page of the scrapbook was a picture of Mike down one one knee holding the ring wearing the exact same thing he was wearing that day and the words "Will you marry me. Check yes or no." I obviously said yes and we went out that night with Andrea to celebrate. Mike had actually bought a different ring 6 months earlier and then exchanged it for the one I have now. We had looked at rings and I found one that I loved, but then not knowing he had already bought one, I decided I wanted something a little more timeless.

The Scrapbook

Celebrating with lunch at Buffalo WIld Wings

Oh to be so skinny...

Show us your wedding rings or an engagement photo! If not engaged/married ... show us your "dream" ring.

Tell us why you think marriage doesn't work out for so many? What can we do to make things last?

I think one of the reasons that marriage doesn't last is because no one thinks of it as a forever commitment anymore. If it doesn't work out you can just try again with your next husband. We are all so selfish in nature and have to learn to put our spouses needs and wants before our own. Along with marriage comes A LOT of compromise. I personally had to learn to pick my battles-instead of picking every.single.one. And we have to remember the vows that we made. For better and for worse. Not "only when I'm happy and things are good". A good marriage takes work, it doesn't just happen overnight.