Photography Friday: Our Love Story

Happy Valentines Day Y'all.
I thought I would get a little lovey over here since blogland is going crazy for V day, and has been for nearly a month!

A lot of bloggers have a story of how they met their partner.. And then their wedding day. I thought I might go ahead and share mine with you.

So, here I go.

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Rob and I met in 2005, when we were both at Waikato University in New Zealand. We met in the back of my friends car. We had a mutual friend who convinced me to come out to a quiz night with him and his brainy mates. That night Rob and I clicked. Like, really clicked. But, we were pretty drunk and at the time he had a girlfriend and I had a boyfriend. So nothing happened. I carried a torch for him secretly for the next while, but figured that he wasn't interested and got back to my relationship, which the wheels were falling off of pretty fast.

In May 2006, the day after I broke up with my boyfriend Rob texted me out of the blue. If you know Rob, you will know that is pretty out of his character, so I was quite shocked. He said that he was going out tonight, and was asking if I would be going out too. And that maybe we could meet up. We started hanging out a lot and friends took bets as to when we would hook up. Which, quite satisfyingly we had been without them knowing. At one point (quite famously, as this was bought up at our wedding), Shannon finally asked Rob what was happening to which he replied, "well lets just say, I am hitting that".

At my 21st in 2006

Six months into us officially being together, I got a job over summer that would mean I would be away all week, but home in the weekend. So, I moved in with Rob. We had the weekends together and I was away with my best mate during the week. It was hard, but much easier than some long distance arrangements. When the summer finished we decided I should stay, and we have been loving together ever since.

At the end of Masters exams, 2007

In 2009 we moved to Perth, and started a life there.

On the way to Albany in 2010

In March 2010 we were laying on the couch watching a movie talking about the future. We knew that we only wanted to be with each other, but weren't really in a rush to be married. We started throwing dates around,
"I like January",
"Well I like February",
"what day do you like?"
"I like the number 8",
I like the number 12"
 ... and somehow decided that we would be married on January 12th, 2013. We lay there a little bit longer and then started giggling. Had we just decided to get married? A few nights later I was talking to Liz, and telling her our conversation.
She started screaming "You're engaged!!!!",
"holy shit, you are right... oh my god I am engaged!!!!!!" I screamed back.
We kept it on the downlow, deciding we would wait to tell everyone in person and buy the ring when we went home in December.

 In September my parent visited, and we told them. On Chirstmas day we told my family, and on Boxing Day we drove to Robs family Christmas at Ohope. Mum and Dad came with us, and after we sat down for Christmas lunch, Rob told his family we were engaged. After much celebrating and drinking and smiling and hugging we bought our the ring in Tauranga.

On the way to break the news on Boxing Day

We went back to Perth after that trip and had an amazing engagement party with our Perth family. And, we began planning our day.

At our engagement party

In mid 2012, we found out that I had been accepted into a program for work which would see us moving to the States for 2 years. Wanting to alleviate the legal sides of the move, and the boring, legal part of our wedding day we decided to have an early registry wedding. This also solved our problem of not being able to celebrate our day with all the people in Perth who had become like family to us. We were officially married on September 7th 2013. Eight years after we first met in our friends car. Seven years after we first kissed.

In January 2013 it was time to make "us" even more official and announce our love and commitment to our family and friends back home. I walked down the aisle to my beautiful husband, and declared how much I love him in front of the people that shaped us into who we are today.

At Wairaka, in Whakatane on our special day

We are now a year into our Texas adventure, and into our second year of marriage. Maybe it was the way we eased into our engagement, and then eased into our marriage, or maybe our challenges will come later, but we didn't have that hard first year of marriage people talk about. I know everyone is different, but I can honestly say that I love my husband, he is my best friend, and my rock. Without him I would be lost.

At home, Christmas 2013

At the moment our focus is on traveling as much as we can while we are here in America, and preparing ourselves to start a family. 

In Geneva, 2013

Next year, we will be moving back to Perth to start a new chapter.. I am eager to see what we do.

To be continued...

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So, that is our story so far. There are far more details, but that is a general overview. A lot of the things we have done were not traditional, but they were right for us, and who we are. And we are happy, which seems like the most important thing to me.