Wedding Wednesday #1

I don't know what it is this week, I'm just so... miserable. I miss my love, and it sucks. I was doing so damn well the first 2 weeks, and this 3rd week? Hell. Total hell. I did get a two minute phone call this afternoon at work... I was in a bakery meeting coming up with names for a new line of cakes and cupcakes for our stores, and that's when he called. Of course I ran out and talked for him for the better part of two minutes, before the satellite phone he was calling from died. Sigh. He sounded the same way I feel, which also just... sucks.

So this one blog that I love to read (enJOY it. best blog ever!) does what she calls "Wedding Wednesdays." In honor of my upcoming wedding (and reminder from The Knot that as of last Thursday, it is only 15 months away), I've decided to follow her tradition. This way, every Wednesday I'll be able to share what I have going so far and make sure I stay on top of my bridal duties. Ha.

Where to begin?

How about our proposal story, for those of you who have not heard it yet? Or wait, maybe the story of how we met? I don't know. Let's do both.

♥ How We Met ♥
After I graduated college in New York, I moved to Cleveland, Ohio in the fall of 2007 to work as a graphic designer for American Greetings, the card company. The position was full-time, but it was only a temp job with the promise of turning permanent. I gave myself a six-month goal to move to a full-time position, after which I planned to pursue other options.

The position never became full-time, so after six months I interviewed and accepted a job back home in New York, where I am now. A month before I left Cleveland, on January 4th, 2008, I met Joshua.

Joshua was home on leave for the holidays that winter. The day before he left to return to Camp Lejeune, his dad and step-mom brought him into American Greetings (they both also worked there at the time!) to bring him around to meet their friends and co-workers. Prior to this, they had suggested that he and I meet, but the timing never worked out because while he was on leave, I was home in NY spending the holiday with my family.

So they brought Joshua over to my area where all the girls were going crazy over him, falling all over themselves to get him to notice them. They introduced Joshua to everyone, and he and I just just made eye contact and exchanged smiles, but I was way too shy to say anything else! After Joshua and his parents left, there was a quick email exchange between his step-mom and I the following week, and Joshua called me the night she gave him my phone number. After that, we were inseparable!

Our first weekend together in St. Augustine, Florida

I truly believe that everything happens for a reason, and I think that meeting Joshua was the reason I moved to Cleveland for six months. I mean, really. I left behind everything I knew in New York, all my family and friends, moved to a big city for a new job that wasn't even permanent, and just when I was about to move home, I met him! Life is so insane.

♥ The Proposal ♥

4th of July Weekend of 2009, we planned a trip with our two best friends to camp out in Virginia Beach, VA. Christian and Joshua met at Camp Lejeune and are in the same squad, and Felice and I met in the 5th grade in New Jersey, where we went to high school.

Our festive picnic table at the campsite the night Joshua proposed

On Friday night (July 3rd, 2009), all four of us arrived at the campsite from opposite directions. Christian and Felice went for a walk on the beach just the two of them, and Joshua and I stayed back at the campsite with the fire. I was setting up the picnic table and he was chopping up firewood, and all of the sudden, he (pretended to) cut his hand open with his k-bar! I freaked out and started running around looking for something to clean his hand with (because of course of really thought that he had cut his hand!), and he kept saying, "Babe, just come look at it, I think it's pretty deep!" and I said "No, no, I need to get towels or a first aid kit or something! Do we need to go to the hospital?!" He finally called for me to just look at it to see how bad it was, so I ran over to him and he opened his hand and put a ring on my finger. ♥ It was there that he asked me to marry him! It was perfect... just the two of us by the campfire, and also so typical of us; him teasing me and me running around like a crazy person... He said he wanted to do it in a way that would completely surprise me so I wouldn't expect anything. Check! It was a fantastic weekend.

So I think that will be all for this Wedding Wednesday. Next week, I'll talk about the plans we've made so far and what we've already accomplished in the wedding planning process! Stay tuned.