Our Love Story

I've done a lot of wedding talk here on the blog, so I thought I'd take it back to the beginning of our little love story.  (it's a little long, but I promise there are funny pictures where we look really young)

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(spoiler alert: we got married)

It was 2007, and I was living in Manayunk, a town that is technically considered to be a part of Philadelphia, but is more of a suburban college town with a main street full of bars and restaurants.  Basically the perfect place to spend the years immediately following college, that time when you're sort of between being a grownup and still being a college kid.  Sometimes you need a town that doesn't force you to grow up quite so fast.  I started the apartment hunt with one of my college roommates, Sanne (pronounced Sunny), and we had no luck with any two bedroom places we saw.  Then we saw a sign in the window, called the number, and were given a tour of a 3 bedroom apartment that was right above a store!  It seemed so quaint and perfect.  We knew another friend of ours, Lisa, was looking for a place, so we called and persuaded her to check this place out.  And that's how the three of us wound up in an old rickety apartment that was full of character.  Claw foot tubs, wood floors, and a pretty cool layout.  Not to mention we were paying under $500 a person, and could walk to the bars.  It couldn't be beat.

The funny thing about this apartment was that our front (and only) door was at the back of an alley, directly across from another door that to led to a mirror image apartment.   Three boys moved into that apartment (this is not going where you think it is) shortly after we did.  We quickly became friends with our new neighbors, especially because our apartments differed in one important way; they had a roof deck (!)  We complained about our landlord, went to bars with them, hung out on their deck, and they may have even helped us get a mouse or two out of our apartment.  Then one night, the neighbors had a few friends down and invited us over.  Sanne instantly hit it off with one of the guys, Steve, who neither Lisa or I would remember the next day (sorry Steve!).  Sanne & Steve started dating seriously right from the start.  He came down every weekend, and sometimes during the week.  Lucky for Sanne we all liked him instantly.  So then October rolled around, and we had the great idea to throw a Halloween party (though I think the party was technically in November, since Halloween was in the middle of the week that year).  We all three still maintain this was THE best party we have ever thrown. EVER.  Our apartment was PACKED.  People everywhere, at one point we found people who we were pretty sure had crashed our party.  Maybe this should have been scary?  Instead we felt it validated at the level of awesomeness that our party had reached.

Anyways, Steve invited about 5 friends down to the party.  A few of them we had already met briefly one weekend down in Rehoboth Beach.  Tim was one of these guys.  Did I mention how seriously we all took this party? Everyone really stepped up their game in the costume department.  I was a 'dirty girl scout',  which basically meant I wore a pleated skirt, tshirt, knee high socks, a girl scout sash (authentic from Alabama- scored on eBay!), and a beret (because girl scouts are French apparently?).   Tim's costume was a little more vague.  He says he was a 'used car salesman'.  I'm not entirely sure he even really knew what his costume was.  He was wearing a grey wig, a suit, and was completely wrapped in bubble wrap underneath his suit.  That's right, his costume was not just a used car salesman, but a fat used car salesman. 

(dirty girl scout + lady bug)

Later in the night Tim and I started talking, probably about how cool my costume/party were.  Oh, and maybe there was a little kissing. He was pretty darn cute even with the bubble wrap.  But I'm a classy girl and retired to my own room, where 3 of my girlfriends were already sleeping/passed out.

(Tim is on the far right, I forgot to mention the glasses. Yes, that IS Mad Dog on the fridge, it was the prize for best costume (we are  mean friends.))

 Rumor has it that Tim saw me early in the night, and told his friend Jon, "I'm going to kiss that girl".  Turns out he was right.  The next morning after telling my friends about Tim, I got a lot of, "wait, the fat guy??"  It must be said that we did not kiss while he was still wearing bubble wrap (though he was still wearing the wig).  Both being shy and awkward we didn't exchange numbers that night.  But luckily we had mutual friends, and would meet up a few weeks later at a Flyers game.  We talked throughout the entire game, I could not even tell you if we won or lost that game.  The night just flew by, never lacking in conversation.  Tim still didn't ask for my number, though we promised to hang out again soon.  Enter MySpace.  Facebook wasn't what it is today, kids.  Myspace was where it was at.  So Tim asked me for my number via MySpace message, and called me a day later to set up our first date.  He would always call, not just text.  It was really nice and different compared to dating I had done in college. 

(St. Patty's day 2008, please note this is not the norm, it's Mustache March (the horror)).

Our first date was at a fancy BYOB restaurant, we stopped at a bar first for a drink since we were a little early for our reservation.  It was one of the best nights - we had such a great time.  Tim would come down to Manayunk on the weekends, and we were pretty much instantly a couple.  About 6 months later I moved to South Philly, and Tim would drive down every weekend.  We spent weekends cooking dinner, exploring the city, going out with friends, and discovering new restaurants. 

(at a Phillies game, role reversal Tim's wearing glasses and I'm not.)

But I soon learned that living in the city is expensive.  After about 9 months down there I got serious about getting out of credit card debt.  Also the couple I was living with had broken up, so we were all looking to get out of the house we were renting early.  I moved home to my parents, who were so awesome at helping me get out of debt, and living rent-free.  It took a while, but after a year and a half or so I was debt-free (well, not including student loans).  Tim and I had started talking more about the future, where we'd live, when we'd get married, etc.  

(still March, but less creepy mustache)

We'd been dating almost 3 years at this point when we decided we'd take a mini-vaca to Savannah, Georgia right after Christmas.  The trip was Tim's idea, and he did all the planning.  This was not easy for the control freak in me, but I let him plan since I was becoming a little suspicious that he might propose on the trip.  We had planned to leave two days after Christmas, but a big blizzard was on it's way so we decided to speed up our plan by about 12 hours.  We left early, and still had to drive through a decent (and scary) amount of snow.  But after a few hours we were through the snow and on our way.  We booked a hotel room on the way, which we paid for in cash.  The hotel seemed alarmed by thi.  They asked for i.d. and made photocopies of our driver's licenses.  It was mainly because my parents gave us cash to leave early and not get caught in the snow (thanks Mom & Dad!)  Now I realize they probably thought we were bank robbers or something.  Sorry, Holiday Inn Express in Virginia.

(brrr it's still cold here)

We made our way down the east coast, and it was cooler than we thought it would be when we arrived in Georgia - thoughstill  much warmer than Pennsylvania for sure.  Our hotel was right up from the street all the restaurants and shops - a pretty perfect spot.  We set out to explore and walk along the cobblestone streets.   Tim had made us dinner reservations for the next night at a swanky place, so we just went to a brewery for a low key dinner on Monday night. 

 (buying some local savannah prints. no really, it's worth the trip upstairs.)

On Tuesday we did a lot of walking around, checking out the parks, exploring along the waterfront, and doing a little shopping.  We got back to the room to get ready for dinner, which was just a short 5 minute walk from our hotel room.  I showered and started to do my hair and makeup, while Tim hopped in the shower.  I heard the shower turn off, then heard him curse from the bathroom.  I asked what happened, and he said he'd gotten out of the shower without washing the conditioner out of his hair. This was a little clue, that maybe someone was nervous! :)

(where we had our first dinner as an engaged couple)

We had given each other just one gift for Christmas since this Savannah trip was our real gift.  We had a limit, it had to be under $25.  He'd gotten me a gold necklace with a swallow on it from etsy, and I'd gotten him a speaker that hooked to his ipod and looked like a clown nose.   When we were almost ready to go to dinner, and he said he had one more gift for me.  He pulled out a ringbox, even though I had my suspicions I was still surprised and thrilled.  I said yes, after saying "'are you serious?!"   I first called my Mom & Dad, but didn't have time to call my sister and best friend because we were running late for dinner.  So we left the hotel and went over to dinner, where we ordered champagne, had the waitress take our picture, and just basked in our newly engaged status.  On our walk home from dinner we called Tim's parents, who were so sweet and happy for us.  When we got back to the room I called my sister, my best friend (who screamed like she was a teenage girl seeing Elvis), and a few other close friends.  We then texted a bunch of people to share the happy news. 

(oh, hey.  we're engaged, and our waitress took a very dark picture to prove it)

The next day we had a foodie tour planned, and got to sample food at 8 different places around Savannah.  It was such a fun tour, I'd recommend it to anyone visiting Savannah.  The older ladies on our tour were thrilled for us, "You got engaged LAST NIGHT?!?!"   I may or may not have ordered a few wedding books before we even left Savannah (what? a girl's gotta be prepared). 

(look, we're going on a foody tour!  gratuitous ring shot)



The next 14 months were filled with planning, saving, multiple wedding appointments,  and house hunting too.  We found a house just before the wedding (after months of searching), and were able to make settlement on March 9th, just 3 weeks before our wedding day.  The month of March was a whirlwind, we got the house on the 9th, got married on the 30th, and left for the honeymoon on April 1st. 

Though we had dated for a while, and didn't get engaged until almost 3 years of dating I think we both knew pretty early on that we were going to get married.  I remember after about 6 months of dating I was talking on the phone with Tim, when somehow our first date came up.  Tim casually mentioned that he still had the wine cork from that date because he knew it was the start of something good.  (Swoon)  Sometimes he acts like a tough guy, but he's pretty sentimental.  I remember thinking this was one of the sweetest things.   

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And our wedding day was the best day EVER.  A party with everyone we know all in one place?  Perfect.  I was worried about being nervous standing in front of all those people, but I felt so calm and happy during the ceremony.  It really was the perfect day, we couldn't have asked for anything better.

xo
Kate