Ben and I met in January at work. He is the groundsmen at St. Philip's and as you know, i'm the new OOSH Coordinator. We kind of got stuck into sharing an office space for a while, started chatting and getting to know each other and then one afternoon he asked me out for coffee which turned into dinner and I guess the rest is history.
We had originally planned on getting married in October but since my family had booked tickets to come in June/July we decided to change our plans and get married in July while they were here so they wouldn't have to come out twice in 1 year. So all this was decided in the last week or so, so I knew the proposal was coming soon but I didn't really want to start planning things until we were officially engaged. So, Wednesday he came and told me he had booked us in to a little Italian restaurant at Terrigal beach we had been wanting to go to for dinner. I guess I need to throw this in...Ben had been growing a beard for about a month and I did not like it! Well he came to pick me up and he had shaved the beard! I was so excited, going on about how that made my day etc, little did I know it was going to get way better :) After dinner he said we should get some hot chocolates to go and go for a walk by the beach. I was kinda hesitant because it was so cold and it had been rainy but I said sure. We walked for a bit and he stopped and said he had a present for me, he pulled out a little box with a bow and said some really sweet stuff (sorry folks, thats for us) and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him and of course I said YES! We sat there for a few minutes before it started to rain and we ran back to the car, called our families...sorry mom and dad for waking you up at 6am! Despite the yucky weather, I could not have asked for a more perfect, romantic night. I'm so excited to get to spend the rest of my life with Ben. He is such an amazing man and I thank God everyday for bringing him into my life. I could go on and on and tell you how wonderful he is but i'm already getting teary and well, you can see how great he is when you get to met him :)
As far as the "wedding plans" go....our date is July 9th. Yes, thats 6 weeks away. We're kind of going a non-traditional route with our wedding. Since my family and friends are all back home and Ben's are all here we wanted to make sure we included everyone best we could. We've decided on having a Pre-Wedding celebration the week before our actual wedding to celebrate with all of our family and friends here in Australia. Then on July 9th we'll be having a small wedding for close family and friends here. Then in September/October we'll be in the US and will have a Post-Wedding celebration with all of my family and friends in the US. So we're going to be doing a lot of celebrating this year :) We've played with several ideas over the last few weeks with how to make it all work and we're very excited about our plans. Being that we're in an "international" relationship our situation is unique so I really feel that this fits our situation really well. I know some people won't understand but there is no way we can please everyone. We look forward to celebrating with everyone in Australia and in the US!
Please keep us in your prayers as we begin our new life together. We're so excited to see what God has in store for us, whether that be in Australia, the US or somewhere different I know He has a wonderful plan for us.
ps-I actually did try to post pictures but for some reason blogger is not letting me. I'll try again soon!
