GayWeddings.com

Okay, this is long but you have to understand why I did the video. Sara and I had been together a little over two years when I proposed. She is not one to hide her feelings, and everyone who knew us was well aware that she wanted to get married. This terrified me a little. We owned a house together, so commitment wasn't the issue. Telling everyone we were getting "married" was the scary part. So, when she would get upset and want to have a "discussion" about my "issues," I would explain it like this: There have been people in my life that I thought were accepting, only to find out later that they really weren't. Therefore, I felt like everyone would be there out of obligation and not because they actually wanted to be there. Because of this, I knew that the entire day of our wedding I would be worried about what others thought instead of enjoying the moment.

Our discussions often lead to her just getting mad because I was worrying about what others thought instead of moving forward with our relationship. Ugh! Anyway, in the last couple of months leading up to my purchase of the ring, things changed. She started to agree with me. (That was really scary, because this woman has a mind of her own.) After seeing my side of the situation, she started to not care about a wedding as much and said things like "You're right, it's a waste of money." Finally I realized that because of my issues, I was taking away her dreams. So, I got over it really fast.

At the end of February last year, I went out and bought the ring. Then I formulated a plan to get that sparkle back when she talked about marriage. I went to everyone that was a part of our lives and asked them to write 2-3 lines just saying something about our relationship or why they thought we were good together. I knew this was the only way to take back all the bad ideas about what people would be thinking. And yes, I even went to her parents. I asked them if I could come over and chat one day. They said yes. So, I took the ring showed them and then explained that it would mean a lot to both of us if we had their approval. They did the parently lecture for a second about making sure we realized that it would be tough, then they both approved. Then I asked them a favor. Sara's dad has a business on the side where he makes slide shows set to music and burns them to dvd. He agreed to take my files of all the quotes people had written then fade them into a picture of the person who wrote the quote. This was all set to a great song by Enya. That was actually the second part of the dvd. The first chapter was nothing but pictures of us and the song "Good Morning Beautiful" was playing.

I finally actually gave it to her on April 3rd. We flew to California on the 2nd which was her b-day. Somehow I managed to get a portable dvd player and the ring onto the flight withouht her knowing. So, the second day there I took her to the beach in LaJolla and gave her the dvd player. I had her play part one and of course she started crying. When it was done she looked at me and I was holding the ring and asked her to marry me. She freaked out and said yes, so then I told her that part two was my gift to her for saying yes. That's when she played the video and saw that all of our siblings and friends had given us their blessing and when the video ended, her dads logo came on the screen and faded to a picture of her parents with the writing "We are happy for you." (or something like that. I can't remember exactly what they wrote.) Anyway, that made her once again the happiest girl ever.

Sorry this was so long, but I just wanted to show that you can redeem yourself when you realize you are shooting down the dreams of your girl.

That's really sweet! And what a breath-taking pic... by far the nicest looking couple I've seen.

-thomas