Talking Wedding, Engagement, Rings and More - Linkup

Today I'm linking up with Becky for her weekly linkup.  This week she had questions all about "your special day!"  I love reliving that day and this allowed me to do just that!

Here we go....

1.  Are you married?  If so, when did you get married, and tell us about your special day.  

       YES - I'm married!!  And absolutely love it.  There is no doubt that the single most awesome day in our relationship was July 8, 2006, the day we each married the love of our life.  After a very intimate wedding at St. Patrick Cathedral in Fort Worth, which included a Catholic Mass, we spent the rest of the evening feasting and partying at our reception at the Rennaissance Worthington.  

2.  Show us some wedding pictures.  

Just put on my veil.

The best Bridesmaids ever!

Arrivng at the church with my dad.

Jeremy and his dad.

My dad and I waiting to go outside for her entrance to the ceremony.

My sweet lover wiping my tears.

One word: Magical.

My cousin wrote these huge cards with the words Thank You.  This was our picture that we sent out as our thank you cards.  This was taken during the reception.

On our way to the reception.

The Ballroom before everyone got there.

Our entrance as husband and wife.  Our bridesmaids and groomsmen were introduced and they formed two lines which was a fun way to enter for Jer and I.

Our first dance.

Toasts!

After everyone had exited the ballroom, to get ready for our exit outside, Jer and I had one last dance (as he held my shoes) to "our song" in the empty ballroom before we left for the night.  It-was-the-perfect-ending.

On our way to the Four Season's for the night and then off to the Cook Islands the next morning for our honeymoon.

3.  How about the engagement.  Tell us your story.

Ohhh the engagement.  It was May 2005 and Jer was about to graduate from law school.  He came home one day and asked if I wanted to go to an attorney conference that he would be attending in Los Angeles.  And, of course, I immediately said, "yes!"  I had always wanted to go to California.  So two days later, we were on a plane ready to see some sunny Cali.  

He made our hotel reservations in West Hollywood at the Hotel Roosevelt!  Best area to stay if you ever wanna go to LA.  It was right in the middle of Hollywood.  We'd walk out of our hotel and immediately step on to the hollywood stars that lined the sidewalk.  

The night after we got there he had made dinner plans for a sushi restaurant up in the Hollywood Hills called Yamashiro's.  It had a Japanese garden around it outside and part of the restaurant had an area that you could sit at that over looked Hollywood while you ate dinner.  We sat there.  :)  After dinner, we walked around outside and walked over to the Japanese Garden area that had a little pond and tree that was lit up.  It was then that he had a guy that worked at the restaurant come over.  Jer pulled out his video camera, gave it to the man and got down on one knee and proposed!  After looking at the ring I said, yes!!  Kidding.  But, I did say "yes, yes, yes" immediately!!!

Yep, he even dressed up in a suit for the special occasion.  He is definitely my Prince.

We spend a few more days sight seeing.  On the agenda was Santa Monica, Rodeo Drive and we even did a limo tour of the Hollywood stars homes.  :)

4.  Show us your wedding rings or an engagement photo.

I love everything about my engagement ring and wedding ring.  It truly is my dream ring and would never replace, upgrade, anything!  It's mine forever.  Jer picked it all out himself.  The only thing that I told him was that I LOVED pear shaped (or tear drop) diamonds.  It's different, you don't see many of them and I just love everything about their shape.  So he took that and ran.  He pieced together the ring after picking out the 2 carat center (pear) diamond.  

After we got engaged, we started looking at wedding rings.  I knew I wanted a separate wedding ring to pair with my engagement ring.  I wanted it to be big enough (or stand out enough) to be able to wear alone.  I love that my ring is two pieces.  If I go work out or go to a club, I wear only the wedding ring, not the "pear" ring.  Sometimes I like to tone it down, for lack of a better description.  

 Here's the wedding ring alone.  It also is perfect for me.  :)  

Engagement photo.  Or two.  :)

5.  Tell us why you think marriage doesn't work out for so many.  What can we do to make things last?

This is a hard one for me to answer.  First, I'm no expert.  And, second, everyone and everyone's relationships are so different.  People have different issues/personalities and what may work for us may not work for others.  But, with that said, one thing that I often think that sometimes people don't truly know each other before getting married.  They haven't had enough time to learn the important details about each other, whether it be how many kids each want, where each wants to live/retire, to if one person confides/leans on their family too much (more than they do their spouse).  What works for us is leaning solely on each other for every single thing.  I've never had to call my mom or a friend and talk to them about Jer.  We keep everything private and work anything out among ourselves, which has built an enormous amount of trust over the years.  And thankfully, we've always been able to.  

Another thing that works for us is our faithfulness for one another.  Our marriage motto (and he'd answer this exactly the same if he was asked) is that: "our goal in life is to live to try to get each other into heaven."  That's one of our main purposes in life and our marriage.  With that in mind, we do everything possible to do just that and give each other respect.  We may fail at this some days, but we are human.  :) 

Making a marriage last is work.  It can either be hard or easy, but no doubt, it's work.  There are lots of things to make a marriage last, but one main thing that I think people could do is giving your partner respect.  Respect is huge in a marriage.  Without it, there is really no solid marriage.  Often times, without even realizing it, we give our bosses more respect than our spouses.  This should be the opposite, shouldn't it?  :)