The History of Us

If I'm going to write about our wedding planning process, then it only seems right to start with a brief history of my not-so-brief relationship with my amazing fiance (a.k.a. "lovemuffin," "muffintop," just plain "muffin," or the least embarassing pet name - "love").

In the beginning, there was a cat...


{Halloween 2005}

On the night Mr. FW and I first got together (I believe we called it "hooking up" at the time.  Am I showing my age there?  Do the kids still use that term?)  this is what I looked like.  Unfortunately I don't have pictures of his Hugh Hefner costume, but suffice it to say that we were an interesting pair!  Our getting together came as a complete surprise to me because we'd been friends for several months at that point.  I thought we'd been on a few "real" dates, but apparently he was unaware of this.  (I mean, come on!  You picked me up and took me to dinner.  I asked you to take off your overshirt so I could see your tattoos.  I was all cuted-up in my favoritest clothes.  Ugh... Whatevs, I'm over it.)

After a few months, it was clear there was some staying power to the relationship.  Don't we look happy?

I was in grad school at the time and he was a senior in college.  Part of graduate training for a psychologist is to complete a year-long internship, and often you have to move to find a position that fits your needs.  So around the 1-year mark, we had to have some tough conversations about what would happen if our relationship became long-distance and whether our relationship was serious enough to move (and move-in) together.  



{SF Pride}

{at a friend's wedding}

Luckily I was placed with an internship that would allow us to move an hour outside of San Francisco, and I would commute to my internship while Mr. FW commuted to grad school (he ended up going to the same grad school as I did!). 



{Ferris Wheels on the far right, accompanied by wedding party members - yay!}



Pretty soon I had graduated,

{that's Doctor Ferris Wheel, to you}

we had purchased a little postage-stamp of a home (our first home!) in San Francisco,



{postage stamp located on the front half of the top floor}

and had settled down with our pack in the the city that we love!   

{Patches and Eli}

Clearly we were making significant commitments to each other even though the engagement wouldn't happen for another 2 years.  We don't consider ourselves traditional AT ALL, so this "out of order" relationship history of buying a home together long before we were engaged is perfectly, blissfully fitting for us.

Of course, like any story, there's always more to tell - and I will, don't worry!  But I'll leave it here for now. 

Did anyone else do things "out of order" like we did?