I met Mark at work. At the weekly company beer hour, in fact. I knew his name because he was the payroll administrator, he knew mine, for the same reason. The first time we were introduced we had a marvellous conversation, ignoring everyone else for the two hours for which beer hour ran.
A few days later I made up a bogus payroll question - an excuse to go to his cube and see if he was at all interested. Big, fat, NO. I didn't come out and ask, but you can just tell. He was all business.
But I had my eye on him anyway. I would talk to him whenever I saw him at beer hour, and would forward him joke emails (this was back in the earlier days of the internet, before those got annoying).
Almost a year after we first met, we were at another beer hour, and again spent the entire time wrapped up in our conversation. Towards the end of the event, he was going to leave with a couple of friends to go to a dive bar (one of his femle coworkers was doing a project for which she had to observe 'deviants', and Mark didn't want her going alone.) He asked, offhand, if I'd like to join them, and I said I'd love to!
Marble head, meet light! He finally realized that perhaps my interest was a little more than platonic. And that was how we started dating.
About a year and a half later, he proposed to me when we were on a trip to Disney World. He took me to the top of the Contemporary Hotel, where there used to be a restuarant called "The Top of the World". He said something like "I've been on top of the world since I met you. Will you marry me so I can stay here?". We always joke that I never said "Yes" - my response was "Of course I will!!!".
We were married in June of '99. We had our wedding rings made out of a Kruger Rand (South African gold coin) that my grandfather had left to me when he passed away a few years before.
My favorite memory from the ceremony was the part where I was supposed to repeat "I take you, Mark, to be my lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold..." I got to the "husband" part, and burst out in giggles. The idea of me with a husband! Too much. It took me about five minutes to get it together so we could continue.
He forgave me for that, and we've had an amazing six+ years together since then. Hoping for many, many more!
Check out Jamie @ Losing the Baby Wait for other participants in the ring show!
7 comments:
Ooh, that's quite a bauble! Gorgeous!
Beautiful rings, Nico, and a lovely story - well done for persevering with him!
How neat that you made the rings out of the coin your grandfather gave you. I love it when rings have backstories like that.
Sweet story as well.
That's a great story!
At least you giggled - I started sobbing and it took a few minutes before I could finish the vows. I had to stare at J's jacket button for the rest of the vows!
I could not stop my legs shaking and as my dress was not a meringue, I was awfully conscious of it! Thank you for sharing your sweet love story.
Lovely story Nico and ring to match.
Beautiful story, and lovely rings. I especially love the gold coin being melted down to make your wedding bands.
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