11 Days

Beautiful OU Campus

 In honor of our wedding quickly approaching, here's our engagement story! Part One.

Let's start with how we began to talk about marriage. From the beginning, we both knew we were dating because we both were looking to eventually find someone to marry. So we joked about it here and there, talked about it as a possibility, you know. 6 months in, while attending a family wedding from Kevin's side, Kevin told me he'd like to marry me one day.  I concurred.

At the wedding, he was an usher

 Around a year in, we started talking about it in a more real way. Christmas break came and we both began praying fervently about it, without really knowing the other was. Days before I was about to head back to Norman and Kevin would pick me up from the airport, I just knew. God had given me such a peace about it and I just had to tell him. I thought about waiting but just couldn't so in one of our nightly phone conversations, I told him. He instantly said he'd been praying the same thing and felt the same though he had planned on telling me in a sweet way after picking me up from the airport...I lack patience, clearly.

Reunion

From that point on, we talked about it often. When would he propose? How long of engagement did we want? What kind of ring should he look for? WHEN WHEN WHEN!? Kevin likes to laugh about how I frequently would explain to him how my finger was naked. Lack of patience playing in there again. His parents teased us, I teased him all the time, yet all along every one knew but me.

Beginning of our summer, our first summer together in the same place, I got an email from Helzberg offering me free pearl earrings if we came in. So we did and I got those free earrings, and the ring shopping began. The afternoon ended, we didn't really talk about it too much. The next weekend, unknown to me, he went back, bought the very first ring I put on, then held onto it...ALL STINKIN SUMMER YALL! I had no clue. In fact, if you ask friends I was 100% certain he didn't have it. For serious.

Afternoon at the park.

We talked about where we wanted to get married. We talked about the date. We talked about colors. We talked about who we wanted to marry us. We talked about our bridesmaids and groomsmen. We talked about everything. I did wedding research and we even attended a wedding show!

you thought I was joking, nope we went and everyone called us Bride and Groom, fakers!

I knew the engagement was coming in the Fall. It had to. There was no way around it. I was fully anticipating a November engagement, on our 2 year...

Pearls:
- I don't exactly encourage prancing around, declaring to your boyfriend that your finger is naked and insisting he dress it..but it made for much laughter and let's face it sometimes boys need you to say it plainly...well that's what I decided
- Talk about engagement with family, friends and people you respect who know you both. You may run into some resistance, in fact you probably will, but having prayer and encouragement from others is so helpful especially in such a life changing decision!
- Pray, pray, pray. Kevin and I talked about being engaged a lot but we wanted to know for sure that God was leading us in that direction. He knows, so just ask Him!