Our Love Story

In honor of Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon with everyone else at From Mrs. to Mama and her “What's Your Love Story Link-Up.”  I’m late to the game, as the link-up has been up since the 7th, but I thought Valentine’s Day was an appropriate time to post this!  So, without further adieu…

 

 

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?

We’ve known each other since February of 2006, and have been “together” since November of 2006, so almost 5 1/2 years!  We’ve been married for almost 4 1/2 years.

This picture below is in Matt’s car the night we met – with our friend Anne, who introduced us!

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?}

Long story short, we met through a mutual friend.  I was living/working in Austin after college and he was living/working in Houston.  He was in town with some friends for a Texas basketball game and was planning to meet up with {said mutual friend} Anne for dinner/drinks the night before.  She convinced me into coming out with them, and the group of us enjoyed dinner at Hula Hut and some drinks downtown.  Although I was dating someone else at the time, it was sort of obvious that there was a connection between us.  Matt sent me a message on facebook the next day and we gradually got to know each other and became friends over the next 9 months.  We swapped a lot of emails back and forth and the occasional text, but that was about it until the weekend Matt found out I had broken up with my then boyfriend.  He basically told me that he had been waiting for me to become single so he could finally ask me out – which he did, and the rest is history!

{fun fact: our first official date he surprised me by taking me SKYDIVING!  AND – fun fact #2: we were married one year – to-the-day- from our first “official” date!}

3. If married, how long have you been married? If not, is this the guy you hope to marry? {do tell}

See #1 – we’ve been married almost 4 1/2 years.

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding? If not, where would you like to get married? And will it be big or small?

We were married in Austin at the Smith Family Chapel and had our reception at Riverplace Country Club with about 150 guests.

 

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!

I wish I had a fun answer for this one, but I really don’t.  We call each other the usual pet-names… babe, hun, etc… but that’s about it!  Boring, I know.

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.

He is loyal; I never have to wonder if he’s going to have my back.  He would do anything for me and Hadley; seeing him love our daughter brings an entirely new level to love.  He’s a hard-worker;  he doesn’t ever ask for recognition, but works harder than anyone I know.

7. Tell us how he proposed? Or your ideal proposal?

I have to start with a little background first.  Matt and I were long distance until we were married – first with me in Austin and him in Houston, and then he moved to San Francisco for 6 months for work.  His work schedule when he lived in San Francisco was insanely busy.  We saw each other as often as we could, but even on weekends when I went to visit him, it wasn’t uncommon for him to still be working when I arrived late in the evening.  So, the weekend of April 14th was arriving and he was supposed to be coming into town.  He called me early that week and said that they had a huge project and he wasn’t going to be able to come into town anymore and he would schedule a flight for the following weekend instead.  On Thursday (I think) of that week, a fun delivery arrived for me at work – a huge bouquet of roses with a card letting me know that he was so sorry he couldn’t make it and he had scheduled me a massage appointment for Saturday morning to make up for it. 

Saturday morning arrived and I rolled out of bed, threw on some sweats and headed to get my massage.  Afterwards, I checked in at the front desk to make sure I didn’t owe anything and the girl had sort of a goofy smile on her face and said “Oh! Are you Brittany?”  I replied that yes, I was and again, just wanted to be sure that everything was taken care of.  She walked in the back room for a second and came back with an envelope and a flower and told me that I was good to go!  As I was walking to my car I thought “wow, Matt is really sorry he couldn’t be here this weekend – so sweet!”  I opened the card to find a single piece of paper that read: “Now that you’re relaxed, the real fun begins; A little game I made up just for you; Wander over to where you just had your nails done; You may just find your next clue!”

To keep this from getting longer than it already is, I’ll jump ahead here and let you know that my clues led me on a huge scavenger hunt to all of our favorite places around town (including a stop at a Sonic where he had a diet coke waiting for me with my clue & flower!) and ended at Mt. Bonnell (the highest point in Austin, overlooking the lake) where he proposed!  He even gave me time to shower and freshen up as my second to last clue was at my house (he told me I had ONE HOUR – haha).  After he proposed, he had made dinner reservations at a steak house downtown where my parents were waiting to celebrate with us!  (His parents were living in London at the time, otherwise they would have been there, too!) 

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?

Ummm, neither really?  I guess if I had to chose I’d say flowers & teddy bear (does anybody really give teddy bears outside of 8th grade?)

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?

Well, would anyone not like a sunset dinner on the beach?  That’s not exactly feasible for us right now, so we are much more of a “pop a movie in and relax on the couch” couple.  Especially after having Hadley, our Friday nights typically consist of going out to eat around 5:30, coming home to get Hadley down and then watching a movie on the couch.

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant other one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?

Once our kids are older, I’d love for us to travel more – particularly, I’d love to go to Greece and Italy.

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.

No big plans here!  I’ll probably make steaks and we may watch a movie on the couch. :)

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?

We’re not big gift-givers for Valentine’s Day, so no, I don’t expect anything!

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.

Be your spouse’s biggest fan.  If you’re always in each other’s corner, you approach life together and can get through anything. 

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you.