The Proposal
Hubs proposed to me on December 13, 2008, I knew it was coming but was completely suprised when he popped the question. It was really quite a sweet proposal. Hubs decided to take me over to Pender Island for the day. He wanted to take me to the Oak Bluffs which is his favorite spot. In order to get there we had to hike up a side of a hill. What made this day extra special in the end, but a little tricky in the beginning is that it was one of the coldest days we had in a long time and we were expecting snow (so Hubs chanced his luck to take me over to the Bluffs on the one day off we had together to propose). When we got to the top of the Bluffs, we sat on a bench. Since it was so cold I had gloves on so Hubs had to find a sneaky way for me to take mine off. He mentioned that he thought I was wearing his gloves as his were a little tight feeling. I didn't think anything of it and took them off. Ir was then, that Hubs got down on one knee and said he had a question to ask me and the rest is history. After Hubs proposed, we went for lunch to celebrate and rushed for the next ferry home as it started to snow.
A view off the BluffsSetting the Date
After Hubs proposed the next big step was setting a date. We decided that spring was too risky because here the weather can be super rainy and cool. Neither of us wanted rain on our wedding day. A fall wedding would have meant gorgeous weather, but with many of our family members still being in school it wasn't very convenient. We thought about having a winter wedding, but with my family having to travel across the country and the concerns of snow making travel difficult we decided that a summer wedding would be our best bet. The weather here in the summer is generally gorgeous, with the exception of a 2 week heat wave we seem to get each year.
Once we decided on a summer wedding we had to decide on the specifics. Since we were engaged in December 08 we felt that a summer wedding for 2009 was too soon for us. We planned on paying for our own wedding and needed time to save and plan accordingly. We looked into having a 2010 wedding and it seemed fitting. It would give us a year and a half to plan and save plus we liked the ring that "2010" seemed to have. Next we had to choose whether we wanted a May, June, July or August wedding.
May- We felt May was still too cool and that the grass and flowers are still coming out in May, plus kids in the family were still in school, so it was a no go.
June- Again, kids were still in school and there are a lot of other events in June
July-Weather is generally warmer and the grass is green and the flowers are out, kids are out of school
August- Kids are out of school, however where we live, August seems to be dry and the grass is brown.
Having weighed out our options we decided on a July wedding. We knew we wanted a Saturday wedding, so we looked at the available dates in July. The Saturday dates were the 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st. The 3rd was out because here in Canada the 1st is a holiday (Canada Day) and we didn't want guests traveling so soon after a holiday due to expense. The 31st seemed so far away so we were down to the 10th, 17th and 24th. We contacted the venue we wanted and asked when they had dates available. They had the 10th and 17th available. We discussed both dates and it came down to us liking the sound of July 10, 2010 better, plus it looked good written as 07.10.10. We never realized that besides 10.10.10, our wedding date was extremely popular.
In the end we couldn't have had a more perfect day. The week before our wedding we had a heat wave, but we were blessed on our wedding day with a cloudless, sunny beautiful day that was of perfect temperature.
Some tips I have for choosing a wedding date:
-Think about the season you want to be married in, each season provides a different feel for a wedding
-Think about sentimental reasons for your wedding date (i.e. might be a parents anniversary, the date you met or got engaged, etc)
-Are certain times more convenient then others (i.e. are you teachers? do guests have to travel across the country, are kids or other family members in school?)
-Are there reasons you wouldn't want a certain date (i.e. you can't stand the heat, you want a garden wedding, you hate the cold, etc)
-Keep in mind holidays, they can sometimes be really convenient for travel but can also add expense
-Sometimes having a wedding on a day other then a Sat can be a lot cheaper, also having a morning wedding is often cheaper then a nighttime wedding.
Hope this post help, let me know if you have any questions. My next post will be the type of wedding we decided to have....
