Our Story

(If you only want the short story, you can read it here.)

We met at a wedding reception at Thanksgiving Point (picture above). The girl who introduced us is the same girl who had introduced the bride and groom at the wedding we were attending. She came up to me as soon as I walked into the reception and said, "There's a boy here I want you to meet. He's tall and conservative." Since I'm a fan of both of those things, I agreed to be set up. We sat next to each other all evening and he seemed very nice, so when he called a few days later and asked me out for the next weekend, I was happy to go.

He planned an awesome date. We went and had super yummy burgers and a shake, and then went to the corn maze at Thanksgiving Point.
Between the great company, the corn maze, the dumb chicken jokes, and the tricycle racing, it was my favorite first date ever, but despite that when he called two days later asking for a second date I had to turn him down because in the meantime I had decided to become exclusive with someone else. I told Matt that I'd call if it didn't work out with that guy.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, Matt had fallen in love with me on our first date and was determined to marry me. He spent the next two months in a discouraged funk, thinking of me and being sad he couldn't be winning me over. He figured for sure he would never hear from me again because my boyfriend "would be crazy to let her get away." As he tells the story, he realizes now that he "should have had more faith."

Obviously, things didn't work out with the other boy. So, after a few weeks of a dating vacation, I gave Matt a call. I didn't know it, but I called the day before his birthday. When he saw my name on his caller ID, he was so excited and said to himself, "Happy birthday to me!" Not knowing that he had been pining away for me the last eight weeks, I asked if he remembered me and he assured me that he did and that he was still interested.

I figured since I had called him, I should plan the date, which it turns out is a lot harder than it looks! But I did manage to get us tickets to a Monster Truck Rally because neither of us had ever been and we both like trying new things. And, come to find out, Monster Truck Rallies are pretty stinkin' cool.
After that, I noticed a pattern in Matt pretty quickly. We would go out on a Saturday night and he would call the next day to ask me out for the following Saturday. (It was smart of him to reserve me so far in advance because I was dating several different guys at the time.) Eventually Matt started to coming down from Salt Lake and taking me out to lunch once a week. Then he started incorporating mid-week dates. He always did a great job planning fun activities, and I enjoyed being with him, but I was definitely not ready to commit.

I had the idea in my head that I would probably become his girlfriend if he brought me flowers at work on Valentine's Day. I was pleased, but not really surprised when he showed up at my work on the day in question with flowers AND chocolates AND jewelry. This was particularly impressive since it was also my first day at an entirely new office. (Also, he had remembered my favorite flowers and my favorite flower shop.)
That evening he took me out to a nice dinner and to the ballet. He reserved me two weeks in advance, which is good because (I would like to mention for the record) I did have another offer.
It was pretty much the perfect Valentine's Day, but I still wasn't sure about being his girlfriend. One week later Matt told me for the first time that he loved me. My response was, "Alright. I'm gathering my courage. Gathering. Gathering. Okay...... I will be your girlfriend."

Even then, I wasn't really sure about him. But as I had been praying about him, the answer I clearly got was, "He might not be the right one for you, but he definitely deserves a chance." So, I decided to take a leap of faith. And, of course, I am now so so so so happy that I did. Matt is pretty much the still water that runs deep. You don't see everything about him all at once, but once you do get to know him, you see how incredible he is. I'll save more details on that for the "All About Matt" section of the blog.

The more I dated Matt, the more I couldn't imagine not being with him. It just took me a while to get used to being in a healthy relationship. I wasn't used to being in a relationship with NO trauma AND a steady, consistent, constant stream of love and affection. So, it only took a few months for him to completely win me over. (It turns out his grandparents had been praying for me. Apparently, I was pretty much a goner once that started.)

We are so happy we get to be married!! Yay!!