Our Love Story {Linkup}

Since I love all things dealing with Valentine's Day and love in general, I was so excited when I saw this link up with from Mrs. to Mama. I am so blessed to have found the love of my life, and still being "newlyweds" I get still get so excited to think about how I'm his "Mrs" :)

Okay, here we go!

1. How long have you and your significant other been together? 

We have officially been together for four years as of January 22nd, but we literally knew from the first time we started hanging out (September 2007) that we both had feelings for each other. So I guess I would say somewhere around four and four and a half years. 

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?} 

Our "love" story still makes me laugh till this day! I first met/saw Jordan during Getting Started weekend at our school. I was standing in line with my mom to get the key to my dorm when Jordan walked by. Now let me paint a visual picture for you of what Jordan looked like at the time: He had super skinny black jeans on, a white studded belt, a graphic tee that was probably black as well, a skateboard in hand, about 20 keys on a caribbean that jingled and jangled every step he took and finally a hairstyle that consisted of black, red and blonde. Now I totally just made him out to sound like a clown, but I loved his "bad boy" look and thought he was so attractive from day one! Now that being said, he didn't necessarily give off the best first impression to everyone he walked by, he totally looked mad at the world (even though he's the sweetest guy ever). I leaned over to my mom and said, "Hey mom, that's the guy I'm gonna marry" in a totally sarcastic manner. She leans back over and says, "Don't even think about it". Sooo, that was how my first interaction with Jordan went! Crazy huh? It was a few weeks later that mutual friend of ours who happened to be Jordan's best man introduced us officially. I was so nervous and excited at the same time, but we hit it off really well and the rest is history :) 

3. If married, how long have you been married? If not, is this the guy you hope to marry? {do tell}

We have been married 5 months and 3 days! I can't believe it's getting close to 6 months, time has gone by so quickly!

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding?  If not, where would you like to get married? And will it be big or small? 

We got married in a church in Connecticut (where I'm from) since I had always envisioned the double doors opening as I walk through and see Jordan for the first time. We had about 150 guests so I don't know if that's considered big or small but to us it really was the perfect size.

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share! 

We always call each other "boo" or "boo boo". I don't even remember how it started (probably from my love for Usher) but it totally stuck with us and I love it. We don't even think about it anymore, it just comes out!

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey. 

1. His desire to always strive to become a better Christian, a better husband and a better friend. 2. His sense of humor, he makes me laugh more than anyone I've ever met. 3. His love for shopping! I know this sounds silly but I knew I couldn't marry a guy that didn't love to shop as much as I did, and I totally found the right guy for me!

7. Tell us how he proposed? Or your ideal proposal? 

(Sorry in advance if I write too much, there were so many details to the day!) Our proposal was so truly perfect, he did such a great job! He knew me well enough to know that if he said we were going out to a fancy dinner or to downtown for the day, then I'd put two and two together and catch on since I really did want to be suprised when he proposed. So he instead planned a really causual dinner at this beautiful park which consisted of chinese (our all time favorite food) take out. That whole day he had been acting so strange, just being super sweet and giddy, so I had an idea that something was up but didn't want to get my hopes up. So while we were at the park I could just tell that he was nervous and really excited about something. That was when it started to hit me that "oh my gosh, I think we're getting engaged today". Now I totally thought that if he was going to do it incorportaing Chinese food, that he was going to put in in our fortune cookies (great idea huh?) since we always love to read our fortunes out loud. So after we finisehd our meals, he hands me my fortune cookie and I'm thinking "here we go!". As I opened the cookie and read my fortune, I realize it has nothing to do with a proposal and is just a regualr Chinese fortune. Now being the goofy one that I am, I decide to play a little trick on him...I take out my fortune and say, "oh my gosh, this fortune says will you marry me". As I looked up at him, he FROZE. He had no idea what was going on and thought that it was a total conicience and that he was going to have to get down on one knee right there! Well I could tell how scared he was so I assured him I was just kidding and that it didn't say anything like that (I thought it was so funny, but felt so bad after!) So not soon after that, he suggested we go for a walk on this beautfiul old bridge. As we begin walking down I see a bouquet of mini purple calla lilies (my favorite flowers) and a hand written card that says my name on it (we always make cards for each other). I immediately start to freak out and just keep repeating "what's going on, what's going on?" He is smiling so big at this point and just tells me to read the card out loud. As I picked up the card, I could feel my self shaking, as well as the tears coming on. The card read: "Jillian, over the past two years and 7 months I have resisted the urge to buy you your favorite flowers, because I wanted to buy them for you on the day that I asked you to marry me." It was at that exact moment that he got down on one knee and told me that he loved me more than anything in this world and wanted to spend the rest of his life with me! He  then opened up the ring box and showed me the BEAUTY! I was so excited and of course screamed YES! We hugged and kissed for what felt like an eternity, until he leaned in and said, "oh one more thing...smile!" As I turned I saw one of our friends who is now a professional photographer taking pictures of the whole thing. Little did I know he had been hiding in the bushes the whole time, and had captured every moment! I was so exited to know that I'd have these photos to look at when ever I wanted :) The best part of the day was yet to come...a few weeks prior I had gotten a call from one of my housemates' fiance saying that he wanted me to plan a surprise engagement party for my housemate (Casey) since they got engaged over the summer and wanted to celebrate with all their friends. I was so excited to help Matt out and told him I'd take care of it. Little did I know, I was planning my own engagement party! Jordan told me later that he know how much of a perfectionist I am, and how much I love planning events so he thought he'd leave it up to me to make sure it looked good :) I absolutely loved that he did this, and the fact that he had invited tons of OUR friends to help celebrate with us, was so sweet and something I'll never forget. 

Some of my favorite pictures from the day:

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?

I think he is a little bit of both actually! I've gotten both types of gifts from him in the past, which I love. Last year he made chocolate covered strawberries, and they were so delicious! He is super creative and a great cook, so I never know what he's going to do :) 

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?

If you had asked me this last year before we were married, I'd say I was totally a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, but now that we're married I absolutely love just hanging out, relaxing on the couch together. Now I still LOVE going out to dinner with Jor, but I'd say overall, we love just hanging out watching a movie, eating popcorn together in our living room.

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere? 

If we could do anything together, I would totally say travel to Europe! It has been my dream to go to Italy and I know it's somewhere he would love to go as well. We've talked about how hopefully one day we can actually go, and cross it off our bucket list! 

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.

We have talked about going out to dinner, and then possibly going to see The Vow! I have no idea if I'll actually be able to swing this one, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed! It will probably be pretty low key since we are trying to save our money, but to be honest I don't need anything fancy, just as long as we're together I will be one happy girl. 

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?

I am not asking for anything this year, simply because we are trying to save money as I mentioned above. However, that being said we will still get each other something, since we love buying each other gifts, it just won't be anything super extravagant or expensive. I have a few ideas of some things I want to buy/make him but I'm still deciding! He also told me that he is going to take me somewhere that is a surprise, so I'm super excited about that!

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love. 

The best advice I could give anyone on keeping a relationship strong and full of love, would be to put your trust and faith in the Lord. Jordan and I are both independent people and a lot of times we think we can figure things out on our own, but we both find out the hard way that we can't. When we give our individual lives as well as our married life over to the Lord, our relationship is so amazing. We know that we can't do it alone,  and to know that the Lord is there for us and wants to help us is so comforting. Also, I would say to not take life too seriously and learn to laugh and have a good time! We've learned to just laugh at the silly things we do instead of getting upset. Life is too short to not enjoy it, and is so much more enjoyable with a smile on your face!

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you.

This is one of my all time favorites. I distinctly remember this moment when our photographer took this photo. I felt so blessed that the Lord had put Jordan in my life, and I was lucky enough to spend the rest of my life with him. I remember thinking how I couldn't pull him in close enough and how crazy in love I am with this man, my best friend and now my husband! 

Well there's our love story, I hope you enjoyed!

-JK