The Fairy Tale
- Happy Keller
- Oct 19, 2022
- 7 min read
Updated: Feb 2, 2023
10/18/22
I have been going back and forth regarding whether or not I should, or even have the right to, write this blog entry. After much consternation I have decided that I am going to complete and publish it. There is one huge reason "why?" - in spite of how everything eventually ended up, I have far too many fond memories to not share them.
I met my Bride via a dating service. I had been a member of the service for over a year, and had very little luck connecting with anyone meaningful during that time. In fact, I was going to give up on the whole endeavor when the person who would become my Bride agreed to meet me.
Our first meeting would be at a coffee shop at the Stanford Shopping Center. We talked for about an hour, and agreed to meet again for a walk around the Stanford Dish (antenna).
I was immediately taken with her, and I decided to celebrate our first meeting with a visit to The Disney Store (also located at the Stanford Shopping Center). I purchased a watch that day which I would make sure to wear each time we had an appointment to meet-up for the next several months.
One of my weaknesses as a (alleged) male of the species is that I have always been a "hopeless romantic" - I love "Love", am (too) quick to fall in love, and am fiercely loyal to the person I am "in love" with (regardless of any obstacles / issues that may exist). While these traits might be viewed as desirable in some cases, in my case it made me appear to be very "needy"... (I was)...
Over the next few months, we met for coffee many times, and did a lot of walking / hiking with one another (as well as with some of her friends). Our dates were rarely what might be considered the standard "dinner-and-a-movie" outing.
The timing of this courting coincided with my paid sabbatical from Electronic Arts (a really wonderful perk that existed during my time there). When I started my sabbatical I was also maxed-out on my vacation time as well so I was free and available for several months to drop whatever I was doing to go see her.
As time went on, and as we started to become more comfortable with one another, she proposed that we go on a trip together to the ClubMed Resort located in Playa Blanca, Mexico. While she made it very clear that this would be a totally platonic trip, I was still very excited to be traveling with her.
On our first day of swimming & sunning, I neglected to put on enough sunscreen and got absolutely roasted. When we returned to our room, I was shivering even though it was very pleasant outside. I went to the closet and pulled out a blanket to wrap myself up in and, as I did so, a string of condoms fell out of the blanket and onto the floor. She took one look at them and became very uncomfortable... I was embarrassed and mortified (even though the condoms weren't mine to begin with). These feelings would pass, and the incident would later cause us both to laugh about it. We spent the rest of the week relaxing together at this wonderful resort.
After I returned to work, and as the months passed, we started visiting various B&Bs around Northern & Central California. Our walks & hikes continued too and, during this time, our romance finally bloomed.
In April of that year, we attended her brother's wedding at a beautiful church in Portola Valley. The day's events left a lasting impression on both of us as she would catch the bouquet at the reception (and I caught the garter).
By this time, I had decided that I was going to ask for my lovely partner's hand in matrimony. As had come up in tiny pieces over all of our time together, I knew that it was important to her that I asked for, and received, permission from her mother prior to asking for her hand. After the bouquet toss and garter fling, I asked for this permission (and was oh so grateful to receive it).
Over the next several weeks, I slept little, and started making elaborate plans in preparation for my intended query pertaining to her availability for solo partnership during the remainder of our lifetimes:
I made a reservation for her birthday weekend at a beautiful B&B in Monterey literally on the coast
Since I knew she loved the works of Monet, I purchased an upscale reproduction of one of her favorite paintings and had it shipped to the B&B with the intention of having it placed on the wall of our room for her to discover upon our arrival there (this is the painting at the top of this post)
I created a board game intended to ask each of us a series of personal questions made up of stories using characters named after our pet names for one another from all of our times together up to that point
Since I knew from information gleaned during our many miles together that any engagement ring would have to be acquired from a particular jeweler contact of her mother's, I had to come up with a facsimile to be used during my eventual intended proposal - a large crystal in the shape of a flower which I would end up placing within a replica Faberge egg (to simulate a ring within a ring box)
I rehearsed singing the final song from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (where Jack makes his relationship overture to Sally) which I intended to pinch as my proposal tune
The actual "proposal event" went about as well as I could have dreamed (she did end up saying "yes" after the board game and my poorly sung proposal).
On the morning after, phone calls were made to express the update in our relationship status to friends & family, she took a little time to do cartwheels on the beach, many photos were taken so that we might remember this time, and we started to make tiny plans regarding what we wanted our wedding to be.
The very first thing we agreed upon was that we would be married at the same beautiful church that her brother had been married in the year prior. Her next request would cause me to lose a lot of sleep in the coming months as she asked me to write not just our vows, but the entire service. Composing the words and phrases for this document was the most difficult writing I would ever do.
As "The Day" got closer, I reveled in all of the planning and preparation. While I won't bore you further with all the details, I will indulge in communicating a few of my fondest memories:
I spent a good deal of time with the florist I had used to send my betrothed many, many colorful arrangements during our courting deciding exactly what the bridal bouquet and reception centerpieces would look like
My future mother-in-law and I would find a glorious location for the reception called The Opera House in Los Gatos... It was the perfect non-traditional location for "our party"...
I ordered Mickey Mouse hats with the names on them of all our closest friends & family who were a part of our wedding party (I used them as name tags at our rehearsal dinner)
My wedding service writing ended up being so successful that the Pastor who was to perform at the ceremony refused to take his normal fee for his services (plus he asked for my permission to use portions of my work at future weddings)
For the last week of her "singlehood", I rented my Bride a white Porsche Boxster to speed around in
On the day of our wedding, one of the tasks I needed to accomplish was the transportation and delivery of the luggage of my Bride and I, my best man and his wife, & her maid of honor and her husband (who was my Bride's younger brother) to the B&B I had rented for all of us to stay at following the reception. The delivery went fine, but as I started to drive back to the church for the wedding ceremony, traffic came to a complete halt and did not move at all for over 20 minutes. I had panicky visions of me being late to my own wedding. After about an hour, traffic finally did start to slowly move (revealing a major lane-blocking accident), and I was able to make it to the church on time (although I did a lot of speeding on the way there).
The remainder of the day (and night) is a bit of a blur now, but my Bride & I had a great time (and I noticed only a couple of people nodding off during my very wordy service... Those of you still reading this already know how I often extend these posts to the point where they might be considered a "sleep aid")...
On the following day we boarded a plane for the ClubMed Resorts in Moorea and Bora Bora. We had a wonderful couple of weeks celebrating everything we had created up to this point.
Time moves on...
While all of the joy we had, and shared, with one another sadly faded, I still look back on most of our twenty five years together fondly.
Many marathons... Many Goldens... Many travels...
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Hopefully this one goes down a little easier than the last one...Thank you all for taking the time to read this!
This blog does have a "chat" function so, if you'd like to reach out to me to comment, give me a possible idea for another entry, or just bitch at me - please feel free to do so!
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