Then Comes Marriage!

On a gloomy Saturday morning in September, M and went for a hike. There's a great little trail in Sonoma that ends up overlooking the town with views extending out through the valley and, on a clear day, over to San Pablo bay and San Francisco.

No make-up, hair in a ponytail, sleepy eyes. Not exactly my best look. But, I love that my guy loves me for who I am without all the face paint and such, and so I absolutely adore that he chose that moment when we reached the top to drop down on one knee and ask me to be his wife. Perfection.

We spent the next eight months planning and prepping and pulling together our dream wedding--an intimate and simple ceremony on the lawn of a local winery with a hell of a party in the barrel room to celebrate our new life together. It was an absolutely perfect day and exceeded all of my hopes of what that day could be. I know it sounds generic, but it really was the best day of our lives. Here are a few of my favorite pics.

(Credits to our AH-mazing photographer, Chip Gillespie. He's in the Houston area. Book him. NOW.)

 

 [For more amazing pictures take a look here. For our rockstar pictures from the day after the wedding, look here. Now really, book this man for any photographs you need taken!]

After looking for my prince for so many years it finally happened and he might as well have placed a glass slipper on my foot. Fairytales really do come true.


 ***And don't get excited about these last two titles-- there's no baby news coming in the next one***

First Comes Love...

Whew! OK...I realize that it's been beyond ages since I last posted, but here I am with a shiny new look and, really, a whole new life since I left you last.

Yep--I'm no longer a swinging' single gal. I think the main reason I stopped posting was because my head was suddenly filled with all these thoughts of a very groovy guy. But dating and blogging don't always go hand and hand. I'm not sure he would have been super excited to read the chronicles of our growing relationship here, and so I just stopped posting. The fact that I was working a gagillion hours a week at the time might also have contributed just a little bit.

So what's the back story? Well, I actually met this groovy guy "back in the day." We grew up in the same small-ish town in Texas and had tons of mutual friends. He played football with my brother. Our moms were teachers together. And we even double dated to his senior prom with each other's friends.

(REALLY wish I had a picture of that to add here. Then again, you would see me when I was 17. With poofy hair. And a poofier dress. I assure you that nothing was pretty in 1990.)

He graduated and neither of us thought twice about the other for nineteen years. I have to spell that out because, hello, 19 years! Enter a Facebook friend request and the sweetest reconnection with emails and getting to know each other all over again and, well, we fell in love in a crazy California adventure full of days spent in vineyards in wine country mixed in with lazy days at the beach. Next month will mark 3 years since we reconnected, but it's only been a couple of years since we were solidly a couple. You know, around the time I stopped posting. (Yes, I was holding out on you there for a while).

I'll tell the rest of the story in my next post, but to tide you over I'll drop in a few pictures from the early days. :)

Second date (June 2009)

My first trip to Napa (Sept 2009)

New Year's Eve 2010

Wine tasting (April 2010)

Wedding in Vermont (May 2010)

Whale watching in SoCal (August 2010)