A Love Story (The Really Extended Version)

Exactly one month ago, Rory and I said our vows and got married. We had an amazing wedding, and I still love to look through all the pictures and videos that everyone took. I posted a long rambly post about the day (Our Wedding) after we got back from our Fiji Honeymoon (which I have also posted about). In celebration of this, I wanted to look back through the history of our relationship. I did a quick version in an older post called Lucky in Love.

So just a heads-up, I’m in a very lovey-dovey headspace, so if you don’t fee like reading a long rambly post about being in love (just look at that word count!), then check out some of my other posts. If you’re happy to join me on my rambles, then keep reading!

Early Days

September 2011

I got a job working checkout at a local supermarket. On my first official shift (after training) on a Sunday morning, there was only one other person on the registers. He had light brown hair, blue eyes and a cute smile. We started talking. We ended up working the Friday night and Sunday morning shifts together. I always looked forward to these shifts in particular.

November 2011

By this point, Rory and I spent most of our shifts talking to each other. I mean, we went out of our way to talk to each other. Once, I was put on the express line, while Rory was on the bigger checkouts across the store. During that shift, whenever we didn’t have customers, we’d go over and talk to each other for as long as we could before being told to head back to our stations.

December 2011

After one particular Sunday shift, I was sitting at the bus stop. I looked up and saw Rory coming over. He lives close to work, so he normally walks home. But his house is in the opposite direction of the bus stop. I said Hi, and he said Hi back. He hovered next to the seats for a while. We kept chatting about our usual stuff (uni, games, television, movies). After 5 minutes, we said bye. After walking off for a bit, he suddenly spun around and said something I didn’t quite hear. So I said “What?” and he repeated “What’s your number?” We exchanged numbers and I was happy and confused for the rest of the day.

The next day, he texted me asking what I was up to. I texted back that I was doing nothing really. We kept texting from mid afternoon till late evening. He told me that he was running out of credit, and that he’d add me on Facebook so we could chat there. We talked on Facebook from late evening till early morning (literally 2 or 3am). Finally, as we said bye for the millionth time, he said we should do something together sometime. I was beyond excited.

On my 20th birthday, we had our first date. We went out to Queensgate and wandered around shops. Rory kept moving close to me, finding random ways to bump into me. He would put his hand on my shoulder,  graze my hand, and at one point gave me a little hug. I had goosebumps and butterflies the whole time. During lunch, we went to a cafe. Rory offered to pay and asked what I wanted. I pointed at a panini, then I didn’t eat it. He asked why and I said, I don’t really like paninis. He was a bit confused. Later on, I told him that I do actually like paninis, I was just crazy nervous the whole time. We went back to some shops before heading back to the bus stop, as I had work that evening. While walking, Rory kept drifting his hands towards mine. Then, he took my hand. We both had very goofy smiles on our face at this point, and the butterflies were exploding in my stomach. When my bus came, we said see you and parted ways. An hour later at work, I told a close colleague that I had been out with Rory. “What, like on a date?” she asked. I started blushing, her eyes went huge and suddenly, we were the centre of the “office gossip”.

Before Christmas, we went out on dates every other day. To Te Papa, to the movies, just around town. I went back to his place during this time and we had our first kiss. I wish I could say it was romantic, but I was crazy nervous so I started laughing during it, and he looked a tad confused. During the early days of our relationship, I had a habit of making things weird out of sheer nerves.

Settling into a Routine

Jan-Aug 2012

We met up as much as we could. After uni, after work, on the weekends. All our free time was basically spent with each other. After a while (following nagging from friends and co-workers), we had “the chat”. We figured we were officially boyfriend and girlfriend. During this time, we met each others’ respective families and friends. We also watched a huge number of television shows together. Funnily enough, being with Rory helped me to be more confident in general. We grew a lot more comfortable around each other. Eventually, I was able to be the one to grab his hand first, or initiate a kiss.

August 2012

Rory had his graduation from WelTec. He brought me along and I spent time with his family without Rory there. I was crazy nervous, but his family is lovely, and I felt like I managed to have a decent conversation without being too awkward. This is also around the time the L bomb was dropped. We went about in a funny way. I think we had both felt it for a while. Love is a hard thing to try describe. We were crazy about each other, had been together for a while, and were pretty serious about each other. Rory texted it to me first. I wish I still had that text. It was sweet, and a tad rambly. But the gist was, he was incredibly happy in our relationship, and hoped we would be together for a long time. Right at the end, he snuck in an “I love you”. I texted it back. When it came to saying it out loud though, there was a weird pressure about it. I kept wanting to say it, but I felt nervous. So did he. Finally, a week or so after the initial text, I blurted it. He gave me the biggest smile I had ever seen, and said it back.

September – December 2012

We finally made our relationship Facebook official (because gentle pestering this time). At this point, our routines changed a little. I finished my studies as well, and I left the supermarket job. We spent less time together as we tried to work out our routines. We also celebrated our first year anniversary.

Busy Adults

2013

This whole year we saw less of each other than we wanted. We both got full time jobs in the city, which involved a lot of public transportation and travel. Rory’s full time job involved shift work. He would have four days on, then four days off. This would rotate between 12 hour day and night shifts. So he would work 7 am-7pm for four days, then four days off, then he would work 7pm-7am and have four days off. My job was a constant Monday-Friday, where I worked 8.30am-5pm. We made it a point to have dates at least once a week. But even that was hard to do. We cherished every moment we had together, which sometimes, was only once or twice a month 😦

At the end of the year, after our 2 year anniversary celebration, I left for my Peru Adventures for a month.

Moving in Together

2014

We moved in together in February. We split costs evenly. We signed contracts, we got rental insurance, we figured out how to split household things in general. We found a small bedsit in Karori that was close to my university as I went back to study education. The landlord was a lovely family, and the rent was cheap. Moving in together didn’t prove to be a problem. We fell into a happy routine. Mostly to match up against Rory’s crazy work schedule. Depending on when he went to work or sleep, we figured who would do what household errand, like cooking or cleaning. We continued visiting each other’s families often. We attended my parents 25th wedding anniversary party. We went for a weekend trip up to Auckland with my family. During this time, we also got into the habit of going for walks and finding things to do around Wellington. We went to Zealandia, and Botanical Gardens quite often as we could walk to them. We also started to talk more about our future. We celebrated three years together.

Full Grown Adults

2015

We moved into another flat, this time closer to town. I found my job as a daycare teacher. By this point, we felt like proper adults. As we were both working full time, we worked more on making a budget and saving up. We talked more seriously about our future. We continued our habit of finding more things to do outside of hanging out at home. We often went for walks down to the waterfront, often with ice-creams! As this was our second year of living together, we found our groove. We were content. We also went away for our first official couple trip together, a weekend in Auckland. We celebrated four years together.

The Next Step

Jan-Feb 2016

We moved again. We were getting used to this. We also discovered that we were close to one of the Mt Victoria trails. We started doing this after work. It was hard, but rewarding for the views. Rory also got a promotion at work. He no longer needed to do shift work, he worked regular office hours, like me. We were able to spend more time together than before.

Mar 2016

During the Easter break, Rory suggested a new date idea. A picnic on Mt Vic. It sounded like fun! Rory put in a lot of work, he said we should get a picnic blanket, and a picnic basket, and he put a lot of thought into what kinds of foods and drink we should have. On the Sunday morning, we went out for that picnic. I had fun packing the basket as Rory got ready. We found a nice spot overlooking the city and had a delicious picnic. We had sparkling apple juice, crackers, chips, sandwiches, fresh fruit…Once we were all packed up, I jumped up and started to walk off. But Rory didn’t move.

“What’s up?”

He was pacing a lot. “I’m just a little nervous”.

I laughed and asked “Why?”

Rory got down on knee and started to pull something from his pocket. It was a little black box. Before he could say anything, I announced that I was going to cry, and then I did. Loudly. For a while. Rory got back up and hugged me until I got myself under control. I think I said “Yes” at some point.

Once we got back home, I realised Rory hadn’t actually asked the question, and he laughed. “No, you interrupted me.” So he asked and I said yes again. I also didn’t look at the ring till a while later, I had forgotten about that part! We told our families the next day, where Rory’s family let me know that he had told them his plan in advance. My sister let me know that he had texted her asking what kind of jewellery I would like. My best friend told me that I should have guessed what was about to happen when I told him about Rory’s plan with the picnic. Apparently everyone knew what was about to happen, but me.

Apr – Aug 2016

We started early plans for the wedding. We figured out budget, venue, photographer, catering and desserts, and I found my dream dress. Our regular routine suddenly became a lot more exciting.

Sep 2016

We had our first official vacation away together. We travelled to Sydney and stayed for a week. It was so much fun! I’ve posted a lot about this trip earlier in my blog.

Oct – Dec 2016

From this side of the Sydney Trip, our wedding was a lot closer. We started planning a lot more, we figured out suits, flowers, decoration, we finalized the ceremony. We met more with our families as they wanted to be involved. We had our engagement photo session. We celebrated five years together.

Marriage and the Future

Jan – Feb 2017

We actually didn’t move this year. But a lot of things did happen. We did the Tongariro Crossing. We also continued planning the wedding. All the little details. We were busy every single weekend.

Mar 2017

We finalized plans. We had the rehearsal. We got married. We went to Fiji.

This brings us up to now. We’re planning on buying a house in the next few years. We are working on saving as much as we can. We’re back in our regular routines, only now we’re in the next stage of our relationship 🙂

That post was way longer than I thought it would be. Thanks for sticking through it. This was a lot of fun to write, and brought back a lot of memories. This is actually the cut-down version from what I originally wrote XD

Angela.