Our Valentine Story

{Same story I shared here last year, but in my opinion, worth telling again. *Smile* Especially considering that I have gained many new readers since last year}.

My Valentine Story:

While in highschool I began attending church with a close friend. It was at this church that I came to know the Lord Jesus as my personal savior. This just happened to be the same church that Bryan and his family went too.

Bryan is 3 years older than I, so we knew of each other in the youth group but it wasn't until our college age years that we really began to get to know each other. My best friend and one of Bryans closest friends were brother and sister so we found ourselves together a lot when hanging out with them. We both began working with the junior high youth during these years and found ourselves at camp together as camp counselors and on mission trips to Mexico. We even found ourselves in the same sign language class at college. We developed a very special friendship during this time which eventually turned into more than just friends. On my 21st Birthday Bryan asked me to marry him. We were married one year and 2 weeks later on September 24th, 1993.


Our silly engagement picture.


Our Serious engagement picture.

How He Proposed

I never grow tired of sharing this story. If you know us well you have probably heard it a million times. ;-)

It was my 21st birthday and Bryan asked for me to get off of work that day. He said he was driving me over to my favorite beach (Santa Barbara) for the day for my birthday. We left early that morning and went out to breakfast in Bakersfield (where we lived) and then drove over to the coast (a 2 hour drive). We went first to the Santa Barbara zoo and spent a few hours walking around. Then on to one of the outdoor malls for another couple of hours. Then we drove out to the pier and parked and got some icecream on the pier. Bryan suggested we walk down to the beach. As we approached the water their was a picnic blanket with a boom box and basket sitting on it near the waters edge.

Bryan sat down on it and I thought he was messing around and sitting on someone elses blanket (he does that sort of thing sometimes) He finally convinced me to sit down and after looking around and realizing no one was nearby I came to the conclusion that his friends who were in college in Santa Barbara at the time, set the blanket up for my birthday though I had not seen them. We sat and listened to some music and ate cheese and crackers and drank from the wine glasses (which even had bows tied around them). Then he asked if I wanted my birthday present. I was surprised because I thought the trip to the beach was my present. He told me I had to stand up and close my eyes and when I opened them he was down on one knee. Of course, you know what my answer was.

After that he suggested we take a walk along the beach and we did. When we got back towards the pier the blanket and everything was gone so I knew Bryans friends had to have been nearby. When questioned- Bryan just smiled.

He told me he had made a reservation at my favorite restaurant on the pier for dinner so we headed that way. The dinner was timed to the sunset and he had requested a table over the water outside. Incredibly romantic!

After we finished dinner the waitress brought over 12 long stemmed red roses and a photo album. The album had lace around it and a bible verse from Ecclesiates on the front. Bryan said his mom had made the album. I thought it was a gift and then he told me to open it up and look inside. When I did their were pictures of him picking out my ring and then the 2nd page on was pictures of us from that day having breakfast that morning, at the zoo, at the mall, on the beach, etc. He had had a friend follow us from Bakersfield over to the beach and two of his friends that were in college met up with that friend and the three of them followed us all day long video taping and taking pictures. Then they rushed the film to the one hour developer while we ate and quickly put the album together. I spent the whole day and never saw one of them. Bryan did several times, but I didn't. Even more amazing is that everyone at our church, my work, my parents, and other friends knew about all of this months prior and no one let it slip out. I was swept off my feet that day........ok long before that day.....but he really swept me off of my feet that day.

Here's a few pictures that were in the album.


Bryan picking up my ring with friends.


The morning of our engagement- out to breakfast in Bakersfield.




In Santa Barbara that afternoon.


On the Santa Barbara Pier


The Wedding


Our wedding invitation

We were married on a Friday evening at our church in Bakersfield, California. 170 of our close friends and family attended. We each had 6 attendants including our best man and maid of honor. We also had a flower girl, 4 ushers, 2 candle lighters, 2 singers (friends), a scripture reader, and one guest book attendant in our wedding party. The ceremony wasn't long- only about 35 minutes. We took communion with our parents during the ceremony and had a time of prayer and scripture reading. We wrote our own vows. We included a lot of music in our ceremony and did not go with the tradional songs that you typically hear at a wedding.













The Reception

Our Reception took place in a friends backyard around their pool. We had food catered in and set the driveway up as a dance floor. A friend was our DJ for the evening. He did an amazing job! We had clear lights strung from the trees, balloons floating in the pool, the cake set up in the gazebo. Tables and chairs were set up around the yard and we set up a play area with ping pong at the back of the yard for the children. We had a large projector tv screen brought in and set up in the backyard to show a video that had pictures of Bryan and I from our childhood up to engagement pictures all set to music. A friend made the video for us. It was about 15minutes long. I loved our reception! We really had fun at it!






Bryan and I with our best man and maid of honor at our reception


Bryan doing the limbo at our reception.

If you would like to hear Bryan and Mines song of which we had played during our wedding ceremony and danced to at our reception, then click HERE.

That was 17 years ago. We will celebrate our 18th Anniversary this September. The past 17 years have included 8 homes in 4 states, 2 dogs, 1 cat, 1 goldfish, 1 rabbit, 1 year of unemployment, the birth of 6 children one being 3 months premature, a near death experience with blood clots for Jen, health issues for both of us, times where we barely had enough food to eat to times where our pantry was overflowing. Many smiles, laughs, good and hard times, tears, and hugs and if their is one thing we have learned through it all it is that God is faithful! My heart is full of thankfulness this Valentines Day for the man that I call husband. I love sharing this journey of life with him.

Happy Valentines Day friends! May each of your days be filled with much love from our Creator above!