At some point I did have a crush on him and I'd even try and dress a bit more "rocker" looking since he liked rock music and skateboarding and all that. It didn't go far though. (Side note: I later on found out he did sort of have a thing for me around the same time. That's what happens with shy people though, we don't act upon our feelings much!)
Months later he and a friend of ours ended up going to the gym together early mornings. He worked really early those days so getting up even earlier to work out was tough but says he only went to see me. It was clear we were interested in each other but super difficult because we both were still to shy to just let loose and talk a lot! One of those mornings though he waited for me outside of the gym to ask me out to dinner. Being the girl that I am, I took my sweet time in the showers getting ready for work and he ended up having to leave. So on my way to work he called me instead and told me about how he wanted to ask me in person.
We dated for a couple months and he had even spoken to my parents about dating me and all like a gentleman. Then we broke up though... We were apart for about a month or so and during that time we would talk on the phone a few times. We actually talked about what went wrong with the relationship, we talked about our assumptions and about what he held back during our dating time. We talked about a lot of things. That's when our relationship finally started to make sense. That's when there was a true relationship forming, where true communication was going on between us.
After that we never really had a "back to dating" moment it just sort of flowed together. We were seen around together and his aunts asked me at his cousins birthday if we were dating and that's when we thought we might as well make it official. He didn't want to be dating just to date so he has asked me early on if marriage was something I could see in our future. I freaked, because that's a pretty big thing and just asked for more time to process that. Little by little, I was learning about him and learning about what love really was and I became to be interested in marrying him as well.
We weren't the couple to be together for many years and be passionately head over heels for each other with a fairy tale story. We were more the couple that understood God's way of love, the understanding and compassionate kind of love, the kind that forgives and embraces differences, the kind that was seeking marriage not because we felt we knew each other so well and felt we could live together. No, we wanted to get married because we wanted to learn more about each other. We wanted to learn more about each other each day and love each other each day and understood the kind of commitment that was. We knew God's way of love was an every day choice and not just the fairy tale "feeling" many confuse it with. We wanted the commitment to each other, we knew enough of each other's values and of who we truly are on the inside to say "I do" to each other.
After some hinting to him that I was ready for that it became a regular topic of conversation so it was no surprise. I spoke to my parents about it and we chose a ring. So the ring was no surprise, although I didn't know when he was actually going to ask, so I'd paint my nails differently every day to be sure my nails were ready for it! Haha!
Thanksgiving of 2013 he had gotten sick and didn't even dress up much for Thanksgiving dinner so I thought it wouldn't be that day; I just slapped some clear nail polish that day since I didn't expect it. He put together a whole big thing with his cousin and my parents to take me to white city park that night. I thought we were going to help a friend out because I was with his cousin at the moment and she got a call to go there. Walking to the spot I saw my sister run so that's when I got suspicious and put some lipstick on! A candle lit aisle and him all dressed in a vest, tie, dress shoes and all, one of our pastors playing guitar, Breno singing "Stand By Me" and my parents and close family friends all around... He asked and I said yes!
With money scarce he moved to Delaware during the beginning of our engagement to save up so I did most of the wedding stuff without him. But with the months of being apart and him visiting and me visiting him up there our relationship kept somehow growing stronger.
Marriage has been my favorite part of it all though. I can say that I love him more and more each day than I did the day before. We aren't the awkward two that sat in front of each other at Red Lobster for their first date just smiling at each other because we didn't know what to say. We are alike in so many ways and completely different in others. There's so much to learn from each other. He encourages me with what I do and I help him out with his things and together we're now working on our future careers and it's amazing where we are now looking back at where we were just a few years ago."
Karen and Breno are the owners of Nassimbeni Photography.
If you are interested in sharing your love story with us, please email me at Mandy@TimelessWeddingDesigns.com with the subject, "Love Is Timeless."
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