One year since engagement, 40 days to marriage and everything in between....

It seems crazy to say that Forest and I have been engaged for a whole year already! Time has flown by and in just over a month we will be married. A lot of people have asked why we dated so long and were engaged so long, and for a while I was one of the people asking, but as we have gotten a little older and time has gone by, I am happy that we have waited as long as we did.

Don’t get me wrong, we are only 22 and are still young, but when you have been dating for 5 years, it seems like we should be married already. When I met Forest, I figured that I liked him, but we went to different schools and I figured it may just be a summer thing. As the summer passed us, I found myself loving every moment spent with him and after 6 months I was sure I was in love with him. After about a year and a half, I knew that I was going to marry him, and I was right lol. So, here I was, wanting to get married and move out and start my life with Forest. Well, fast forward 3 years, we are about the graduate from college and get married.

I kept telling Forest that I wanted to get married and he would tell me that he did too, but we didn’t have the money. He was obviously right, usually is, but I didn’t like that answer. We are getting married in about a month, and we have accomplished a lot of awesome things because we waited.

First, we can actually afford a wedding. Weddings have a lot of hidden expenses that you don’t think about when you are budgeting for your wedding. Like plates….plates are CRAZY expensive, but you need them. Our parents helped us out a lot thank goodness!

Second thing, we got to do a little bit of traveling. We got to go to Thailand for almost two weeks. Thailand was an incredible experience and I feel so happy that we got to go on that trip. Thailand also tested our relationship when we got on a bike and did a self-guided tour through Bangkok. We also get to go on a honeymoon because we had a little extra money. We are going to relax in Florida for 10 days which sounds incredible after this last year of college.

Third reason is the planning time. We will be engaged for about 14 months and all I can say is thank goodness. Our senior year of college was a tough one. We both worked and went to school full time. I student taught full time in the spring and Forest took crazy hard classes, so this year has been a little bit hectic. We planned a lot in the summer, mostly your basics like the venue, the invitations, times, etc. Then we did absolutely nothing until Christmas break when we got a guest list together, thought about a cake, got my dress, and a lot of other little things. At the beginning of April, I finished student teaching, so I have had a little more time to finalize some details and am feeling much more prepared. I would have gone crazy had I only had a few months to plan, so this situation worked out well for us.

The fourth reason I am glad we waited is the timing of graduation. We will graduate from college in about a week and will start our careers, we will be making money, and will be done with school for at least a year (Forest is definitely going back and maybe one day I will too, we’ll see.). This ended up being perfect timing and will give us some time to get used to married life before I start my job at the end of August.

The last reason, my favorite reason is that we were able to buy a condo. After receiving a contract with Granite School District, we were able to qualify for a home loan. At the beginning of the month, we closed on a great condo in Murray/Cottonwood Heights area, and with a little work we will be ready to move in by our wedding. We are both thrilled that we were able to make this happen and are looking forward to our first night there on our wedding night. It will be a great first home for us.

So, even though I waited for a long time to marry Forest, the wait was well worth it and we are well on our way to a happy life together. Most importantly, I love Forest and can’t wait to marry and spend the rest of my life with him!

Thanks for reading!!

Maddie