What a wonderful thread! Thanks everyone for sharing your stories! Here's ours:
There was this girl that I had known since I was 13 and she was 12. We were good friends and by the time I was 20 I knew I wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with her. Unfortunately for me, I was stuck in the Friend Zone with her, and her main criterion for a suitable husband involved the size of his yearly income. She met a guy who was pulling down $50k a year, and they embarked on a two-year romance that eventually led to their getting married, but not before she broke my heart and that of one of my good friends during a period when her and Mr. $50K had a brief breakup. By the time they got married in September 2000 I was bitter, cynical, and not too optimistic about life. I can honestly say I grieved more over her than I have over family members who have died.
My best friend knew how down in the dumps I was, and one evening he called me and said that a certain young lady of our mutual acquaintance had a thing for me, and he had arranged a date for us. I knew her a little bit, and thought she was kind of cute, so I agreed to go. Much later I found out he'd called her and told her the same thing about me. The date was at Applebees on 13th St. in Gainesville, and it went okay. We had a second date a few weeks later where we exchanged phone numbers. Things went pretty quickly after that; by January 2001 we knew we were going to get married, we got engaged in April 2001, and were married on October 27, 2001. We honeymooned at (where else?) WDW, where she found her love for Disney and I rediscovered mine.
Almost nine years later we're as happy as can be. Marriage isn't always easy, but it is incredibly rewarding and I can think of no one I'd rather spend my life with than my dear, sweet Marie.
Our wedding day:
More recently:
