Tiffany and Jeff~ 06/16/2012

Jeff had planned a trip to Victoria for Tiffany’s birthday. He asked her if there was anything she wanted to see or do while they were there. Tiffany really wanted to go to the Butterfly Museum because she had gone there as a child and broken her camera so she had no pictures.

Not only did Tiffany love butterflies, but they have a special connection with Jeff and Tiffany because when they first started dating they saw a butterfly on every date they went on until winter came.
Jeff teased her about going there but he took her. Once they were inside he paid there admission and took her into the first room where they had a television and an educational video about the growth of butterflies. Jeff told her he had forgotten his cell phone in the car and that he was going to run out and get it. Tiffany asked him if he wanted her to come with him and he said that it was fine and for her to watch the video and fill him in on what he missed from it.

He came back and the video had ended so they progressed into the Butterfly Room. Jeff looked a little flushed and Tiffany asked him if he was feeling alright, he said he was fine and blamed it on the heat from the room (it has to be a warm temperature for the butterflies to thrive). Jeff kept telling her to ‘look!’ practically every thirty seconds. They continued to walk around and then they went to a look-out point. Jeff handed her the camera and asked her to take a picture of the exotic birds that were also in the sanctuary. He had played with the settings of my camera so Tiffany couldn’t get a clear shot as Tiffany played with the setting Jeff called out her name. He was behind her and when she heard him and just said “Yea?” without turning around. He didn’’t say anything and she kept trying to fix the settings on my camera, a bit frustrated as to why he messed with them.

Jeff called her name again and over her shoulder she asked “what?”. This time Jeff said “Look!” Tiffany half turned around and said “Yea, I saw it”, not really paying attention and pretending to look at something in a tree but mainly focused on the camera. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jeff on one knee and she whipped all the way around as she felt her eyes just about pop out of her head. Jeff had a proud little smirk on his face and asked very confidently “Tiffany, will you marry me?”. She was in shock, smiling from ear to ear and couldn’t believe it. She said “Nooooo… nooo nooo nooo!” She watched his smirk quickly fade and a look of puzzlement came on his face. She realized she had said “no” and quickly said “I meant yes! YES! I only said no cause I couldn’t believe it and then I saw you there and I” he cut her off by kissing her. He slipped the ring on her finger.

Melissa and Kyle ~ 06/2012

Kyle and Melissa met while attending school in Kona, Hawaii. They attended school for three months and then went on a three month mission’s trip to South Africa. There were many different countries to choose from for the mission’s trip but they both ended up on the same team. They slowly got to know each other throughout the three months and at the very end of the trip on a beach watching the sunset Kyle asked me Melissa out.

Melissa lives in Canada and Kyle is from the States so thus began there long distance relationship began. They had never experienced something so hard in their lives. They were both very thankful for skype. As they got to know each other on a deeper level every night at 6 o’clock. They would Skype for hours every day. There next visit was 2 months later when Kyle flew over for Melissa’s sisters graduation. They spent ten days together before they had to part again. The next visit was another 1 1/2 later when Melissa went to Pennsylvania to meet his family. Little did Melissa know the next time she would visit he would pop the question.

Kyle arrived at the airport at midnight to pick her up. Melissa had the best feeling, walking through the gate looking through the crowd and seeing him there with flowers. It’s always like a movie…without the slow motion running. Being apart for them was extremely hard but it has made them appreciate every single minute they had together.

Melissa’s birthday was coming up so when she got into the car Kyle told her to look in the glove box for her present. No, it wasn’t that easy the ring wasn’t in the car. Instead she found a piece of paper with her first clue. He had written out a riddle for Melissa to solve. The first riddle answer led back to a parking lot we had sat in during our last trip to Niagara Falls. It was 2am and Melissa was looking high and low for her next clue. She finally found it and it led her to an ice cream shop in his hometown. By the time they made it to the shop it was two days later. Hidden in a river bank was the next clue, Melissa had to decode the riddle and go to a park hidden in the woods where she found the next clue. Then all of a sudden Kyle stopped leading her to find clues. She figured he had it all planned out so she didn’t say much. Then before they knew it Saturday (Melissa’s birthday) was upon them, it was mid afternoon when Kyle said he had to leave for a bit to check on her present. He came back in a half an hour and told her that they had a lot of clues to find so they better get started.

The last clue led them to a meadow in the middle of nowhere. It was the place where they would lay and just talk. When they arrived Melissa started running around like a goof yelling about how they better hurry since they had more clues to find. She then found the clue hidden in the branches of a peach tree and started reading it aloud. It began with a clever rhyme and as she read it her eyes jumped to the end which read “Will you be my wife?” She spun around to see him on one knee and a ring box.

It’s been quite the journey and there still going strong. Being young they don’t have a lot of funds but they are having fun trying to save money. Melissa and Kyle are set to get married in June they can’t wait to be in the same country, it will be a gift in itself to see each other every day!

I was not one of those little girls who played out her dream wedding with dolls or who knew what kind of dress she wanted since the age of 5. I never really thought about my wedding until I got engaged on December 23, 2008. Then, it hit me: I was going to have a wedding and I was going to have to plan it. Of course, I didn’t start planning it until 8 months ago because I wanted to enjoy being engaged for awhile first.

Planning things is a gift of mine, so I didn’t think it was going to be too difficult. I immediately started making lists and felt that these would keep me in check. They did not. I did not realize that wedding planning takes more than lists and that it encompasses using a vast amount of social etiquette.

This first thing that we decided was the date. Since my fiancé and I met on December 23, 2006, and he proposed 2 years later exactly, we went with December 23, 2011. A date that would eventually cause a number of dramatic issues. We chose this date because it was and is important to us. It will mark our 5 year anniversary together since the cold, snowy, December evening that we met. Simple enough, with a touch of romance and sentiment.

The second thing we discussed was the location. I am a Maritimer, born and raised in a small community in Nova Scotia where most of my family still lives. My fiancé, on the other hand, has lived in Alberta all his life. Now came the question of which family was going to have to fly across the country right before Christmas. Since I am rather frugal, and because I did not want a large wedding, we decided to have the wedding in Alberta to save ourselves the cost of flying and having to put our three pets in a kennel for a week. Besides, after looking into what it would take for me to plan a wedding in Nova Scotia while living in Alberta, I decided that I am rather fond of my sanity.

Then came telling everyone. With such a small wedding, we didn’t do invitations, we just sort of called them and casually mentioned that they were invited to our wedding that was a few months away.

That was an adventure on its own. Not only was I asking my family to fly here, I was asking them to do it just before Christmas. The response to that idea was, “Why so close to Christmas?”, “Won’t it be too cold?”, “Can’t you change the date?”. The date and location have caused a sort of snowball effect in our wedding planning, as you can imagine. But, we stuck to what was important to us. We have made some changes to our initial idea in order to accommodate our guests, but only to a certain extent.

Some people choose their date based on the availability of the venue, some people choose it based on a statutory holiday, some people simply pick a date at random. You have to decide what is important to you and your fiancé and work from there. If the venue is more important than the date you get married on, get it when you can. If you want your guests from out of town to have more travel time, plan it around a holiday. Whatever your reasoning behind the date, make sure that it is your own. You are allowed to be at least a bit selfish when it comes to your wedding, so use that while you can.

She got something a little better than Pajamas…

Nicole & Weir ~ 7/28/12

Nicole’s fiancé proposed to her on Christmas Eve 2010. She had known from the very beginning that Weir was the one that she wanted to grow, learn and explore life with. While celebrating the holiday season with his family he had informed her that everyone opens a Christmas gift on Christmas Eve and that the presents are usually pajamas. Nicole had joined the entire family in the living room and go figure she had to open the first gift as Weir was already sitting down with a wrapped box in his hands. She remembers saying to him that she didn’t want to go first because everyone was starring and it was super awkward (he told her to suck it up.) Nicole began to open the box, and noticed it was a Wii console but the box was empty, so she thought that he was surprising her with the Wii and had set it up at home. As she was smiling and chatting about it being such a great surprise he was getting down on one knee saying “You are the bacon to my eggs, the peanut butter to my jelly and the baseball to my glove, I can’t wait to spend to rest of our lives together and for you to be the mother to my children, the happiness to my day and the adventure to our lives…will you do me the honour of becoming my wife, will you marry me?” It was breath taking, and not only was she surprised but his family as well as no one knew he was going to propose!

A family birthday party that none of them will ever forget…

Skip & Takara ~

Takara’s Grandmother planned a big party for both her little sister and boyfriend Skip. Their birthdays are a day apart so it wasn’t weird to be celebrating their birthdays with both of our families. The problem is no one was giving Takara any information about the party but they wanted her to invite people at the last minute. Well, that wasn’t going so well; one thing she can’t stand is last minute stuff. So she refused to invite anyone and she told them if they kept pressing her she wouldn’t show up either. Takara was pretty mad well honestly she was fuming at everyone involved.

Then the night of the party came, and everything was going good! There were at least 30 to 40 people at her grandparents’ house eating, talking and just having a good time. Then everyone was called into the living room to sing Happy Birthday, they sung and all of a sudden people wanted to make speeches. Takara’s sister was first (keep in mind that she is 10) her speech was simple “Thank you all for coming to celebrate my birthday with me and Willie!” Then Takara’s boyfriend was next, the room was quiet, you could hear a pin drop. Willie then says “My speech involves Takara” (her stomach drops) She walks over to him and he begins to speak again. He starts “Takara we have been together for three years, you helped me grow spiritually and made me smile more than I knew was possible and for that I think you deserve the world. But since I can’t give you that I’ll give you the next best thing. Takara will you marry me?” Takara just about died!!! Then she said yes! He then slid the prettiest ring in the whole world on her finger!