Getting Married - A blog

The proposal

We have been engaged for almost a year now. It's hard to believe that we are already in the second half of our 18 month engagement. On the 4th of March 2009 my then-boyfriend Paddy asked me to marry him. We met at the end of my time college, I was just after turning 22. After 5 1/2 years together, Paddy proposed and the truth was, I wasn't expecting it at all. I was genuinely surprised. Paddy had been thinking about it for over a year. We are now going out together 6 and a half years and we're getting married on the 4th of September 2010.

A little bit about us... We are both Irish. I'm from Donegal and Paddy is from Tipperary. We met at the house of a mutual friend. Well, actually, we originally met at a bar, through the same mutual friend, talked to each other for about five minutes and didn't set eyes on one and other for about six weeks... but He remembered Me!. We went on our first date to the beach and ended up walking along, talking about this, that and everything. We must have covered it all that day from wicca to templar knights, from computer science to cookery and we both shared a love of poetry. Actually, Paddy is one of those sensitive types, the artsy guy who actually looks at the world around him and thinks about it, that's one of my favorite things about him (even though he'd be mortified if he read this). The first time I went to Paddy's house I saw a map of Korea on the wall, he told me that he wanted to go travelling more than anything else, I understood his desire for adventure, there is such a big world out there to see.

After three years and a bit (and lots of saving!), we finally fulfilled our dream and moved to Melbourne, Australia in Feb 2007, with a month in Asia on the way over (you can read about that in our travel blog:).

Then, two years after that, still in Melbourne, Paddy proposed in our living room in Elwood. We were talking about whether we would stay in Melbourne, Paddy suddenly asked me if I wanted to get married. I said yes. He got down on one knee and asked my properly, laughing the whole time. Then he lifted me up in his arms and swirled me about. We were really excited but it felt surreal, it didn't feel like it was really happening (it still feels a bit surreal, but when we booked the church it began to feel like it was really happening). I called my mother and my two best friends Lynn and Joe to tell them the good news. Paddy called his parents to let them know.

We picked out a ring together a few days later.

This is my blog all about getting married. It's not just about the things we organize or the to dos and not to dos, its also a collection of my experiences along the way. I hope you enjoy reading it!

Laura