Going to the chapel ... (well not really a chapel)

One year ago today my husband and I were married. It seems like the year has flown by and sometimes I find it hard to believe that I am actually married, especially those times I accidentally use my maiden name!
I thought I would write out our relationship and our wedding. I use the term wedding loosely as you will find out. In short we eloped and it was the perfect way for us to get married.

We first met 6 years ago when I started my first job after university; he was one of my bosses while I was training (naughty!). After I had moved on to my role we remained close friends, and ‘just friends’ by the way ;-). I have always had a lot of male friends, I’m one of those easy going and non-game playing girls, and a total flirt of course! I’ll admit that I had no interest in a relationship at that point, I was 21 (he is 7 years older btw), earning good money for the first time, and truly believed in being “single and fabulous!”.
And then one hot July evening at a summer barbecue work event we ended up spending the night together (yes, for that reason!). Me being a bit of a commitment phobe at the time (thanks to two broken hearts at uni) thought it would just be a onetime thing. He had a different idea! The next week he waited for me to finish work and asked me out on a date, I reluctantly agreed (wasn’t I awful!). We went on the date where we had planned to go to the cinema but we never actually saw the film, instead we spent all evening talking and that’s where our relationship began. About 6 months after that we went on holiday to New York and that is where I realise I loved him, I actually cried when my parents picked me up from his after we got back as I didn’t want to be apart from him (yuk, it’s getting sappy now!). Anyway, we had moved in together within another 2 months and apart from one very rough patch 3 years ago (which we worked through) we have been together ever since.

Fast forward five years later and we had decided to get married, yes I mean ‘decided’, there wasn’t any big proposal or romantic gesture, apart from him buying me a ring when we were in Las Vegas! I never thought I would get married, I’m one of those thoroughly modern girls (not Millie!) who believes that marriage isn’t necessary these days, and it should be something to be done only if you truly want it. I had a rare romantic moment when I realised I wanted to marry him and be his wife. We are both quite private people so a big wedding was never on the cards, much to my mother’s disgust. We always knew that we would get married abroad and I could not think of any place other that New York since it is the place that really made our relationship. We decided to do it completely on our own as we couldn’t be doing with pressures and demands from others, especially after I had a huge fight with my mother (whom I have never really been close to) as she didn’t approve. This fight ended with me telling her in a much more colourful way to stuff it, you know life is too short for that kind of aggravation!
So on 10th May 2010 we flew out to New York and applied for our marriage licence. Then on 12th May we got up early, I teased my long blonde hair into a huge bun (think Carrie when Charlotte gets married in ‘Sex and the City’), put on a scarlet red dress (yes that’s right SCARLET RED! Convention, I defy you!), got on the subway down to the City Clerk’s Office and got married in what can only be described as the shortest ceremony in history. Seriously, it didn’t last longer than 2 minutes, it was great! This was followed by going back to our hotel to get changed, the hotel toilet overflowing (yes really), and then going out for pizza. Yup, you read it right; our wedding day consisted of a red dress, the subway, 90 second ceremony, overflowing toilet, and pizza! It was a fabulous day, which I wouldn’t change for the world.

A year later and our relationship is stronger than ever. A lot has changed over the year, including promotions for him and me giving up work. We hope to have a family as soon as fate and nature lets us and live long and happy lives together, urgh I need to stop this sentimental stuff!

I would love to hear your own stories of how you met your significant other, or fell in love etc, please comment or email and I’ll post them.
I need to go and find my cynicism now as I seem to have misplaced it!

Xx

P.s. in case you were wondering, my mother still hasn’t forgiven me!!