Shawn and I met in an online chat room. Neither one of us were looking for a relationship, but things turned out unexpected. After days of chatting, we realized that we had so much in common and we agreed to meet just to hang out. When we met, there was a strong connection, and I believe at that moment we felt so close and happy to be with one another. The more we hung out, the more we began to realize that we were falling for one another. Of course we agreed to be boyfriend and girlfriend and I think we both felt early in our relationship that we would build a beautiful life together.


We had always talked about our future together, marriage, kids, careers, retirement, our whole lives together. Everyone thought after 5 years, I should have known Shawn would propose, but I figured if we waited 5 years, what's to stop him for waiting longer? I honestly didn't expect it. We took a cruise to the Bahamas to celebrate our being together for 5 years. Before we left, Shawn made a small treasure box and put some coins and fake treasure in the box as well as my engagement ring. He hid it in his luggage the whole time! We had a dolphin excursion planned in Nassau Bahamas, however we had to take a catamaran to a small island called Blue Lagoon Island to do the excursion. Once we were done playing with the dolphins, we decided to stay on the island and hang out on the beach. We couldn't believe how beautiful the island was and how clear the water was! We were standing in the water just admiring the beauty of this place when a lady asked if I could take a picture of her and her family. So while I was turned away from Shawn, he took the treasure box out of his pocket and dug it into the sand in the water. By the time I came back, he told me he found something. At first I didn't know what it was. He asked me to grab it, but I refused to grab an unknown object out of the water. Finally he grabbed it out of the sand and I grabbed it out of the water. By this time, Shawn was on one knee and asked me to marry him. When I opened the box I saw the ring. I would like to say that I believed him, but I didn't. I thought it was a joke. So after about a minute or so and convincing me it was a real proposal, I realized he was serious, and I started to cry. It was truly a romantic and wonderful proposal.

We had a semi-big wedding planned for October of this year, but with the stress and financial issues we decided to go a different direction. We had a talk one Friday afternoon about how the wedding might not work out and what we were going to do. He asked me jokingly if we should just run off to Las Vegas and elope. To me it sounded like a great idea. Less money, less stress, and it would be all about us! That sounded great to me. I came home and we talked about other possible solutions, but I still had Vegas on my mind. Saturday morning I woke up and asked Shawn if he wanted to go to Vegas and elope. We danced around the idea for a while and I browsed online for a last minute flight out to Las Vegas. We found a great deal for the flight, hotel and car rental. I knew this was a decision we had to make fast. So after Shawn was weighing the pros and cons he finally said okay, lets do it. We flew out to Vegas that same day. We had a pretty good time in Vegas, though most of the time was spent trying to get everything ready for us to get married. So we went out and found me a dress, found Shawn a nice outfit, we got me some accessories, filled out our paperwork for the marriage license and paid for the ceremony. All we had left to do was get married. It turned out to be much easier than I thought it would. I tried not to cry, but it was still pretty easy. All I kept looking at was Shawn, smiling at me. I think because it was just us there, it relieved a lot of anxieties and the nervousness I thought I would feel was not there. It was very intimate and special. The chapel where we got married at had a web cam so that our friends and family back at home could watch us get married live. That worked out great, especially since my parents weren't too happy about not being there and ditching out on a wedding. All in all, it was a good decision for him and I and now we can move on with our lives together and be happy as husband and wife!

Since we went and eloped instead of having a big wedding, we decided to still do a reception for everyone else. So far the date is August 22nd. It will be a potluck and we are holding it at a friend's house. There are still some more details to work out, but the rest of the information will be on the invitations which will hopefully be sent out this week.

TYPE OVER THIS TEXT to include a personal message to your guests. Let them know how excited you are that they are sharing this special day with you!