As I mentioned in my Dreams really do come true post, I have decided to dedicate the Wednesdays of this month (and maybe a few more) to writing about my wedding, my memories, the key decisions, the day and the honey moon. – grab some tissues (or a sick bucket) coz they might get a bit sloppy!
Where better to start than the proposal?
It was nearly three years after I officially started dating Dan when the question was popped. I was to-ing and fro-ing between teacher training in Scarborough and Home, in Nottinghamshire and I knew that once I was graduated I wanted to be with Dan, forever! I started to get a little bit hinty I guess. You know, the whole ‘if we ever get married I would want x,y,z’ and ‘when I move home, do you think we should start looking for somewhere a little more permanent to live’. Now, these in my mind were big hints but there was something making me feel like they were all hints falling on deaf ears!
I had to stay in Scarborough for a little longer to finish a placement in a school before I was officially a teacher. Anyone that knows a trainee teacher (or qualified) you will know the amount of work and stress this creates. For me, my career was the most important thing but I always had this ‘what am I going to do’ feeling for when I qualified. I had been offered a job in the most dreamy school, somewhere I wanted to be but I had this little magnet to home. It was Dan. I could never tell him because I didn’t want to freak him out! So, whilst I was coming to the end of placement, I was on one of the many weekends at home getting all of the planning and write ups done when my parents had a phone call from Dan requesting that they take me to meet him in town. It because he didn’t know my clothes size and he was buying my birthday gift. He had already asked me to go with him but I refused because I was ‘too busy’! Mum prised me away from the computer and books to take a break. I was having a full on hissy fit because I just needed to get my work done and didn’t have the time to shop! What I didn’t know that this was a planned out operation and everyone knew apart from me!
Dad drove and dropped me at the completely wrong area of town for the clothes shops. He parked nearer to where he got his printer inks from which I thought was odd but I got out and headed towards the centre – sneaky plan one! There’s an independent jewellery shop near the printer ink shop. I always looked in that shop whenever I went by. My mum loved the shop too and as a trained diamond specialist in her younger years she knows a good rock when she sees one! Knowing this about me, it was planned that Dad would park up near there knowing I’d look in. Dan was outside the jewellers waiting for me with a huge (but somewhat awkward) smile on his face and the words “well, if you want to marry me I had better get a good ring”… I literally burst out crying there and then. Absolutely shocked that he actually wanted to marry me! As we went in, there was a tray of rings that he had selected for me to look at and try on. There were five to choose from. One of them was instantly dismissed, a ruby and diamond. I love ruby set jewellery but not my ideal engagement ring. Another was more of an eternity ring (hint: push present for the future); then there were a couple of stunners. One was the ring I had always looked at in the window – a multiple diamond “flat” set ring (he genuinely had no idea), one was a small yellow gold and solitaire diamond and the other was a platinum and yellow gold solitaire with a huge diamond! I just had to call my mum… obviously she and Dad knew what was happening and had pulled up, waiting for me to emerge from the shop with a shiny new piece of jewellery (and a fiancé)! What they weren’t quite expecting was for me to say “mum, I’ve got a dilemma. I love them all!” Mum came in and my next shock happened. “You’re having my wedding ring and it would be a good idea to go with what would fit best if you genuinely can’t decide”. Mum had to have her original wedding ring cut off and Dad replaced it with a right stonking belter! Her original was always saved for me and the most perfect ring to sit next to it out of them all was the one I had always hung my nose over. I honestly wasn’t that fussy about my ring. I was so overjoyed that this was even happening. In the most cranky, stressed out, whingey time Dan still wanted me to be his wife! He had asked both of my parents prior to asking me and planned it so so well! So on 24th September 2011 I gained a future husband, a stunning new ring and the biggest smile anyone could imagine!
We were on the way to tell his family when it suddenly occurred to us that he hadn’t actually popped the question so as random as this sounds, he parked up the car outside our old school (which was on the way to his parents house and incidentally where we first met as 11 year olds) and got on one knee. It was the easiest yes I have ever said!
Dan got a gift too – a “H” tattooed on his finger! I remember him joking saying he liked tattoo rings so once we were ‘officially’ engaged, I jokingly offered to buy him an engagement “ring” to which he drove straight to the nearest tattoo shop and had it done.
I literally had to head back up to Scarborough the following evening but I think I floated rather than drove.
Obviously my gut feeling was right. Dan really was my home magnet. If I had taken the job in Scarborough, I don’t think we would have worked out. His job is somewhat specific and there was nothing up there for him that paid as well as he gets paid in his job… and on a start out salary, I wouldn’t earn as much as he does so the logical thing was to make our own home in Nottinghamshire. A job isn’t for life but a husband is and I wasn’t in anyway going to push him to the bottom of my priorities! Everything seemed to slot together after that. I qualified and moved home. Got a job in a local school, we moved into our first house and things just seemed so peachy. Even to this day I have to say that this was the happiest time in my life.
I often pinch myself and thank my lucky stars for the blessing this man is in my life. We may have met at school but didn’t really get to know each other until 2008 and I can honestly say that the more I learn about this amazing man; the more he puts up with the stresses, the hospital trips and the frustrations we face, the more I love him! I never believed that love grew but that is because I had never been in love before! It’s a feeling that I hope every single person should have the privilege of feeling. It might take what seems forever but once you know, you know!
I’m going to write about the steps we took to get our magical day.
Come back next Wednesday to read part two!
I will be posting about our fifth wedding anniversary weekend this Saturday (14th April) at 10am please come and have a read. You can follow my Instagram: littlegoldendaffodil for ‘live’ ramblings and what i’m up to.
Han.x
The Little Golden Daffodil 