This was never me. I never played "weddings" with my Barbie's and when we played dress up in old dresses Mum had knocking about from Bridal Shows I was always the Bridesmaid, never the Bride. My official line has always been "I hate being centre of attention" though if anyone saw the videos of myself as a child this would come across as the biggest lie ever! Much to our discredit, my sister and I would flick through the tonnes of wedding photographs Mum had taken of her clients and make fun of them instead of gushing over how pretty the Bridal party was. If we ever spotted a dress we liked we'd comment on how we would like "something like that" for our own wedding, but in the same breath would say "but I'm never having a wedding, so..."It honestly wasn't until I met Michael that I began to show a bit more of an interest in getting married. I could suddenly envision it. I remember the very first time that I walked past a bridal shop and actually took notice of what was in the window. I was working in Premier People on Bridge Street in Lisburn and used to walk past Reflections Bridal Studio every morning and afternoon. It was there that I spotted the very first dress that ever caught my eye, so much so, that I actually took a photograph of it and sent it to my Mum and sister. They were probably just as shocked as I was at this sudden change of heart! Michael and I later visited the Seaforde Butterfly House in Co. Down where I actually said the words "this would be a gorgeous place to have a wedding" and I remember feeling quite shocked at myself for verbalising such things, let alone thinking them!
I worked with a girl in Premier People who was planning her wedding at the time and I mentioned the Butterfly House to her one afternoon. She encouraged me to email them to see if they hosted weddings and to get a quote. I got swept up in the moment of it all and sent them a quick email with a string of questions - and this was all when I was over a year away from even being engaged! I felt a little foolish after that, jumping ahead of myself and allowing myself to be swept up so easily, but I found that the most interesting part was that I wasn't so adverse to the idea of getting married anymore.
Over the following year, Michael and I began to talk more and more about our future - we'd gotten ourselves past a pretty tricky phase in our lives - both of us had lost our jobs and it was stress city for a long, long time. It was a disaster year of epic proportions from start to finish. We spent the majority of the year struggling to find work, which wasn't easy (I count 7 different employers between us in 2013) and after a while things finally started to move in the right direction and we eventually snowballed our way into a really happy place. If we could get through 2013 together, we could get through anything. 2013 made us stronger as a couple and the year that followed was our happiest year together - 2014 was amazing, and we rounded it off perfectly with our Engagement. The evening we got engaged we had a group hug with the cat and the rabbit which ended with a (rather untraditional) high five in our dining room - we'd made it - and we did as a family.
The funny thing was, as soon as the ring was on my finger, the Butterfly House wedding never even came into my head. I think it was maybe because I didn't want to wait until the spring or summer next year before we could get married. Michael and I pretty much spent 2014 with the knowledge that we wanted to marry each other - it was suddenly no longer a matter of "if" but a matter of "when". I believe that it was the tragic and sudden death of Michael's friend's partner that spurred him to buy a ring and he carried it around for a month or two waiting for the perfect moment. Just a few weeks before, in November, I went to dinner with my friend Heather and she asked me what my ideal wedding plans would be. I remember telling her how we planned to spend Christmas 2015 in New York and I how I would secretly just love to get married while we're out there. I don't remember telling Michael this plan, but when we did get engaged just a few weeks later it seemed he had the exact same idea in mind, so it was very quickly agreed that a wedding in New York was what we were going to do! And the rest is history, so it would seem.
Weddings and marriages aren't for everyone. But I do believe, that when you meet the right person and you live with them and survive a few years with them, then it becomes the natural progression and doesn't seem so scary anymore. I was recently looking through some old emails from when we first met (MSN Messenger anyone?) and when we used to send each other huge essays while I was in Australia and the new Facebook "memories" feature has brought up some rather cringe worthy posts from when we were getting to know each other. It's so funny to look back and see how far you've come together.
We can't wait to be The Archers. The wedding stuff is just a small part of a big future :)
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