I have never been more lost and had so much fun at the same time as when Lisa, my Mom and I went to San Francisco for the weekend to find a wedding dress for me. For certain reasons I had to wait until April to get my dress which I found out in April was cutting it close in the wedding dress world. I was determined to get The Dress that weekend.

Friday night Lisa and I drive to SF Airport to pick Mom up. That night was all about finding a parking place and drinking wine. We were up until midnight which is really late for the 3 of us.

Saturday we were all over the place, lost, on who knows which freeway, and in a bunch of dress shops. I was so lucky I had Verizon to help me navigate. We ended our day of shopping just in time to make it to Sutro’s at the Cliff House for our fantastic dinner over looking the ocean.

We went to our last dress shop on Sunday and found the one. Over all we went to 4 dress shops and I must have tried on 40 dresses. Lisa has a big red mark on her finger from zipping all the dresses.

Thank you Mom and Lisa for taking on this adventure with me. I could not have done it without both of you.

Well, this journey toward Marriage all began on Thursday 12/20/2007. We were going to spend the Christmas holiday with Kristina’s parents, so I told her that I would like to have a nice surprise date night with her before we left. She was very excited since she is quite the fan of surprises, but little did she know that the surprise was much bigger than she expected.

I picked her up from work and we drove out to Avila Beach to have dinner at the Custom House. This was the restaurant we ate at on our first date and I felt it only fitting that it also be a part of the beginning of our marriage (I had hoped, hehe).

I had planned on proposing to her during the walk along the beach on the way back to the car. However, as we finished dinner my nerves began to take over and I asked Kristina if she would like to watch a little of the Steeler game and grab a beer before heading home. We went next door to Mr. Ricks to have a beer/calm my nerves :). After sipping my beer for as long as possible, I could stall no longer. It was time to head “home”.

We began walking back to the car and every single time I wanted to stop to propose I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Next thing I knew, we were back at the car and I was out of time. I gave her a big hug (to hopefully calm my nerves), but my physical condition was starting to give me away. During our “nice hug” Kristina says “Your heart is beating really fast”. I was busted, so it was now or never. I dropped to one knee and went for it.

The look on her face was priceless as she instantly realized what was happening. I forgot everything I wanted to say and all I could get out was the standard, lame “Will you marry me?”. She quickly said yes and despite constantly reminding myself not to screw up, I put the ring on her wrong hand. I quickly realized my mistake and fixed it.

After things calmed down we got into the car and headed to Sycamore Mineral Hot Springs where I had reserved a room (just in case she said yes). We had a great night relaxing in the hot tub and realizing our future.

It was that night that Kristina made me the luckiest man in the world. Thank you for Loving me Kristina. I will spend the rest of my life trying to make you as happy as you make me.

-Love Chad

As you read in Chad’s blog about the proposal it happened on date night. I love date night especially when I have no idea what is going to happen and I can spend the whole drive guessing where we are going, which I did. I always get it right….eventually.

Chad had been acting a little funny and when I discovered we were going to the Custom House I thought something might be up. Dinner was wonderful, Chad was still acting a bit strange and I was starting to get antsy wondering if Chad was up to something. Before I knew it dinner was over and no big event. I chalked it up to wishful thinking and decided I was happy the way we were and didn’t need a “big event.”

So, I had had at least one glass of wine with diner and by the time I was half way through my Firestone at Mr. Ricks I was tipsy and ready to go. Guess I should have given Chad more time to “calm his nerves” but I thought we were just going home.

It was freezing cold (you know like 55) so we quickly walked to the car. When Chad stopped to hug me he was shaking, burning hot and his heart was going a million miles an hour. I asked him if he was ok and that’s when he popped the question. I tried to get a look at the ring before I said anything but he was holding it in his hand, o well. I said yes and Chad put an amazingly beautiful ring on my right hand. I freaked out! I thought maybe he was kidding or I had heard him wrong and ….well I thought somehow I was wrong and he hadn’t just proposed. The shock on my face must have been apparent because he quickly moved the ring to my left hand. Whoosh…thank goodness.

I was and am so excited about spending my life with Chad; we are going to have an amazing life.