MikeR & SuzyB's Courtship, Planning Journal, Wedding, and Disneymoon

[MikeR]

MikeR & SuzyB's Courtship, Planning Journal, Wedding, and Disneymoon

Greetings and Salutations!

The beginning is a good place to start, so to begin at the beginning;

Like all great romances throughout the annals of history, Mike and Suzy met over an internet dating service. Mike sent out a very personalized note to Suzy that was not just a copy that he cut and pasted to over a thousand girls at match.com, and after he received Suzy's reply he . . . waited. And waited. And waited some more because his life was busy with junk and you know . . . stuff.

So Suzy took the procrastinating Mike by the horns and wrote him back asking what the deal was, he writes her and then doesn't respond to her response? What's up with that?

Mike quickly realizes it was "his bad" and says that he's real sorry and that he did mean to write her, he just forgot to, and tell you what, why don't we avoid a long e-mail relationship and just meet?

Now Mike has a problem: He's bad with directions. Really bad with directions. He'll post a short-story that explains how bad he is in the future, but for now just accept that he's bad with directions. So he asks Suzy where she wants to meet and she lists a couple of places that Mike has _no_ idea of how to get to. Mike asks if she has an address that he can put in his GPS, but no go, all Suzy can offer is "directions" as they involve "streets" and "roads" and "turns", things that confuse and frighten Mike.

So, being a suave sophisticated guy in his late 20's that he is, he asks Suzy if she'd meet him at the most romantic destination in the world, and coincidently one that he knows he can get to without any problems; the local mall.

Specifically the Starbucks at the Mall, and Suzy agrees to be a good sport and meet him there. When they arrive the Starbucks is _packed_ and there is a super huge line. Mike chats with Suzy a bit and then suggests that they go someplace even more romantic than a Starbucks at a mall - the mall food court. Is is a mystery why he was still single at this point.

Suzy, being a really good sport, agrees and they both go to the food court and order glasses of water - thus demonstrating to each other that they are mutually compatible cheap-skates. They talk, and they chat, and while they only have an hour to do so because Suzy has to go to some party, they get a good sense for each other the way you only can through actually talking with someone.

When Suzy has to leave Mike asks if she'd like to get together the next weekend for a real date and Suzy says yes. Mike goes away thinking, "That went well. She seems like a nice girl. I wonder how things will go on Saturday?"

Suzy went away and called her Mom and said she found the guy she was going to marry. If Mike would have known this he would have freaked the frick out!

Suzy's Mom told her to calm down, and not jump to any conclusions and to take things slow.

The next weekend they get together at Suzy's house and go off to a local park to walk around, talk some more, and get together. And it's there that they have their first kiss. [hearts flutter flutter flutter]

Mike and Suzy on their first _real_ date.

 

[Pezalicious]

You two sound so sweet! I can't wait to read more. Welcome to the boards! There aren't too many boys around, but it will be great to read about wedding planning from a different perspective!

 

[mla1977]

Yay! I'm glad you decided to join us here.

 

[lurkyloo]

HIGH-larious!! Maybe I will switch to writing in the third person in my PJ - it makes it so much funnier!

 

[helloirishkitty]

heh I love it!

 

[starrzone]

You guys sound like a really cute couple! Can't wait to read more!

 

[MikeR]

Mike and Suzy quickly grew close to each other, and did many fun activies like enjoying hikes in the wonderful wonderland of wonder that is Silvercreek falls and experiencing mild hypothermia from said hike

Mike, more so than Suzy

 

[mla1977]

Were you trying to impress the girl by jumping into the water? It just looks really, really cold.

 

[MikeR]

Were you trying to impress the girl by jumping into the water? It just looks really, really cold.

Nope. I just like swimming in waterfalls. I'm crazy like that.

It just looks really, really cold.

Amazingly enough, it _was_ really really cold.

 

[Kristen14]

Welcome Mike! It's good to see a Groom involved in planning... can you talk some sense into my DF?

 

[MikeR]

More months passed and there comes a time in any couples relationship when the man decides to shave his head.

Mike was noticing that his hair was getting a little thiner on top than it was when he was a bushy lad of one-score and two. He didn't want to have an accountants hair-cut (you know, with the hair on the sides but bald up top) and decided that if / when he went bald he'd just shave everything off and go for a Lex Luther look.


Suzy was pretty understanding and suggested that he invest heavily in rogain.

She also decided that it was time for Mike to meet her family who lived in New Jersey (they live in Oregon). Now they had only been dating for around 5 months or so at this point, so it was a rather big step for Mike to fly across the country just to meet her family, but her brother was graduating High School, and after that the family was planning on all leaving New Jersey for various other parts of the US, so it was really the last chance for Mike to meet them all at once. So off they went to the green sky's . . . well more of a brownish, actually, of New Jersey.


Mike and Suzy at Princeton:

Mike, Suzy, Her Sister, and Some Friends:

Mike and Suzy's father at her brother's graduation:

Suzy's Family celebrating her brother's graduation:

Mike and Suzy eating at an authentic New York Chinese restaurant because they were (and still are) considering living in China for a few years

 

[caryndisneydiva]

very exciting! you make me homesick, my parents live right outside princeton, nj!!! i can't wait to read more!

CONGRATULATIONS on choosing the bic instead of the rogaine, i dated a guy who did hair club for men, and it looked like he was engaging in crop rotation on his head. NOT ATTRACTIVE...

 

[MikeR]

After Mike met Suzy's family it was only fair that she get to know hist a little better, so what way to go with Mike's Dad's side of the family to Italy:

The Ralls Clan and Suzy on vacation

This classical building represents a trip to Italy

But this mob of people better represents what the vacation was often like

Mike and Suzy at Capri

At the end of the trip we got held up in security and missed our flight home. We were shocked to learn that airlines will no longer give you a spot on another plane if you miss your flight because of security. We were _so_ angry at that. The only thing that could console Mike was finding a Chik-fil-a restaunt, which he grew up loving but that only had 1 in the entire Northwest and that closed down a decade ago. As you can see, he is way to excited about fast food than anyone has a right to be

 

[lurkyloo]

At the end of the trip we got held up in security and missed our flight home. We were shocked to learn that airlines will no longer give you a spot on another plane if you miss your flight because of security. We were _so_ angry at that.

Oh no! So how did you get home? Or are you writing this from Italy...?

 

[Bostonbride6292008]

Being stuck in the airport is the worst! I love that you are telling your story in third person!

 

[MikeR]

As a couple grows closer and closer their thoughts turn more and more towards that paramount question in every relationship: The lack of an increase in equity in renting and the cost-benefit breakdown of owning a house in comparison. So, on bended knee Mike asked Suzy if she would like to get into hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt with him, and she said YES!!!!!

The Happy Couple Doing Copious Paperwork.

The Happy Couple in Front of their New House.

Four days before they had reserved a moving van and arranged for friends and family to help them move Portland had its worst snow storm of the year.

Luckily the happy couple used that day to finish all the packing that they had put-off, so it actually worked out for the best because the snow was all gone by the time they moved.

Moving Day.

Now, when Mike's Mom decided she wanted to sell her house and would rather avoid all the hassle of moving and cleaning it out and what-not, she made a deal with Mike. She would to sell it to him at a reduced price as long as he bought it as-is. The Family Antiques? His responsibility. The broken stairs, stained carpets, leaking faucets, and a million other things that needed fixing? His responsibility? The garage that had accumulated 20 years worth of left-overs from people his Mom had rented rooms out to? He gets the joy of cleaning that sucker out.

It took Mike and Suzy literally months and month and months to clean out that garage, but they got it done eventually.

And once they got one thing done they had to move on to the next project; smashing the old 70's bathtub so they could replace it with a new one. SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH!!!!

Mike does all the work and Suzy gets to enjoy the goods, just the way it is supposed to be.

They also had to re-do a lot of old wiring because Mike's cousin who is an electrician told them that they lived in what is technically known as a "Death-Trap" and that their house could "burn to the ground any minute unless we fix this god-awful wiring now now now now NOW!" Mike didn't understand all that technical jargon, but he got the gist of it and with a lot of help from his cousin the three got it done.

Of course, when one project is finished there is another one to start. Suzy hated the 1970's style shingles over our inside fire-place and had Mike rip them off and then she repainted it.

Before

After

The basic pastern seemed to be that anything requiring skill or technique is not Mike's forte, but anything requiring brute force is right up his ally.

Like destroying the old fence by running up to it and giving it a flying kick karate chop that Mike learned how to do when he was 12 and has since used precisely once:

Before:

A little after.

A little more after that.

Mike's Mom also rented out most of her house to some immigrants before Mike and Suzy bought the place. Mike was very fond of them and tutored their kids for a while, but they did have an . . . interesting is probably the politest word for it, taste in color schemes;

Mike and Suzy spent a good deal of time repainting much of the house:

After

There was also a slight infestations of ants, but that was nothing that couldn't be curred with a little application of napalm.

The couple also worked on their garden where Mike planted some giant and really humongous blue-berry bushes:

At least, they felt giant and humongous to Mike's back after he had planted them. They also planted a Christmas tree:

which Suzy seems inordinately fond of.

Even though it has been a tremendous amount of work fixing and cleaning up their house, Mike and Suzy both really enjoy being home-owners and feel a real sense of pride and accomplishment in their works. Going through that ordeal helped them grow closer together and made Mike think that the time was right to take the next step . . .

The Happy Couple with their favorite t-shirts which say, "Life is Good" because it really is.

 

[MistressOfAllEvil]

ooooh, this is so much fun to read!! More! More!

 

[caryndisneydiva]

wow!!!! that was quite a remodel! i'm glad there were some zip lock bags in that garage, bet those came in handy!!!

 

[MikeR]

Mike and Suzy talked about getting engaged for a while in a round-about way. One day in early January they were walking all a path in some woods.

Suzy trying to leap-from over a poll.

Mike talked about how he was in love with Suzy but that myth and ritual were important to him. In the old days a tribesman wouldn't just ask a girl to marry him, first he had to perform some great feet to prove that he was worthy of her and her of him. Now stalking wild-elephants with a sharpened stick was not Mike's forte, so he had to come up with some other goal. Mike and Suzy talked it over a bit and decided that if Mike got a section of his thesis done and Suzy reached a certain weight that they would then get engaged. This would give them something that they both wanted to do anyways and that would show that they would be willing to work and strive for each other.

The Happy Couple after being engaged-to-be-engaged

A few more months passed, and by April Mike was almost done with his section of his thesis and Suzy was almost at his goal weight so he and she set aside a weekend for a mini-vacation. Due to their busy schedules there was pretty much no way that Mike could keep the purpose of their vacation a secret, so Suzy knew exactly why they were going to the coast.

Suzy getting ready to be proposed to.

Mike made reservations for a quaint hotel on the Oregon coast. Each room was themed like some famous author and Mike got the Herman Melville Room because it was the only one available. The bed was a big 19th-century oak monstrosity, the windows were like port-holes, and the floor was at a slight angle, like on a ship.

On the drive to the coast Mike also called Suzy's parents and asked for their blessing, which they gave. Mike thinks that really gave him major brownie-points and the only reason he did it was that his brother-in-law, who is a real southern gentleman, asked for permission from Mike and his family before he proposed to Mike's sister. Mike considered asking for permission from Suzy's parents, but he really didn't feel like it because if they said no his response would have been, "Well up yours. I'm doing it anyways!" so asking for permission when you don't really need it didn't gel with him, but a blessing sounds nice so what the hey?

Mike and Suzy bought some nice wine, some cheese, some breads and other goodies. They drink some, ate some, and then laughed some. Mike then told Suzy a story about how a boy met a wonderful girl and how she helped him become a Man. How she was everything he could ever want in someone and how he asked her to marry him and she said yes. How they lived together and had a wonderful life together. He then asked if she would make his story come true. Would she marry him?

She would.

Suzy after she was proposed to.

Mike and Suzy first picture together as an engaged couple.

Suzy could not stop admiring her ring.

 

[cseca]

Congrats!
You two are adorable...