I Said Yes

Steve and I consider our engagement date to be July 11, 2003 because that is the day that he gave me an engagement ring. However, there are two other dates in 2003 which could reasonably be considered our engagement day: May 17 and June 27. 

Backing up a bit: Steve and I first started talking about getting married in January 2003. Over the next few months, we bought a cake topper, went ring shopping, and starting thinking about venues (in that order). On May 17, Steve joined my family for Great Strides, an annual benefit for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, held at Heather Farm Park in Walnut Creek. It's a beautiful place year-round, but that day the weather was perfect and the flowers were in full bloom. Steve pulled me aside and asked, "Will you marry me here?" I said yes. We'd found the ideal place for us to get married. 

I Said Yes (affiliate link)

Technically, it was a proposal, but (oddly) we didn't consider ourselves engaged yet. That would come with the ring. I didn't know it at the time, but Steve had been shopping for just the right loose diamond and then was having it custom set, which took a lot more time than he'd expected.

We thought a lot about wedding dates before deciding that Sunday, June 27, 2004 would be the perfect day. As it turns out, Heather Farm is a really popular location for weddings. They required all brides who wanted a particular date to show up in person exactly one year ahead of time. If more than one bride showed up, they'd hold a drawing. So on Friday, June 27, 2003 I went to Walnut Creek. I was so excited to lock in our date. But it was not to be. Another bride showed up and she won the drawing. I was devastated. 

What to do? I asked if there were any weekend dates where no brides showed up. We could get married sooner if there was a date. Indeed, there was one: Sunday, May 30, 2004. It was the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. That would work well for family and friends who were traveling from out of state. It wasn't ideal in terms of my job; we'd picked late June so that I'd be on summer break. But we could get married, have a mini honeymoon, and then I could return to finish out the school year. We'd do a proper honeymoon later. So on June 27, with Steve's blessing, I signed a contract securing our wedding venue for May 30. Technically, we still weren't engaged!

I made this scrapbook layout for the NSD Shape challenge at A Cherry on Top. We had to include at least 10 of the same shape on the page and the shapes had to be different sizes. I own three heart punches, which worked well for my layout.