Happily Ever After Party

Ceremony

Reception

Winter

Our Wedding

Usually when someone knocks at your door on Halloween you expect to hand out candy. You don't expect to meet your future spouse. It's 2020 and the world is shut down. My roommate and I are going to be handing out candy to the neighborhood kids and she has convinced me to dress up. Because it was year one of the pandemic, we needed some joy and excitement in our lives which also means that we had already decorated for Christmas. My costume was to wear an ugly Christmas sweater and obnoxiously loud leggings. She had invited a guy she had just started seeing to join us and I requested that he bring some kind of buddy so that I wouldn't be thirdwheeling all night. He brought his cousin Tony who was very tall and looked like he could fix anything. As a girl with a perpetually breaking down car, this was a very appealing person. When I asked Tony what he first thought of me, he literally said "I didn't think anything of you." Reader, I tell you I snorted with laughter at his response. This is the main thing you need to know about our personalities- Tony is smart, witty, and VERY analytical. He deals mainly in facts and figures and known rules. I am the chaos that he has chosen to endure. While I enjoy the analytical I also enjoy the emotional and just plain silly things in life. And no worries, dear reader, I did persevere and ask the question again in a new fashion. He was first interested (see that was the word I missed before) when I expressed excitement over his scientific speech at dinner. I thought he was probably talking about a car part. He just informed me that no, it was a discussion about if popcorn weighs more or less after popping. Did he give me the entire argument again? Yes. Did I start typing this while he was talking? ...maybe... He loves me, its fine. I promise he is laughing at me right now. He finished the lecture while I was typing. This is our way. By the end of the night he asked for my Facebook. Don't worry, I did ask why in the world he went that route. "It seemed less intimidating than asking for your number!" So we were friends on an app that he RARELY used. I messaged him the next morning and he didn't reply for DAYS. I was just about to write this whole thing off when he finally logged in and read my message. After that, I got messages between 7 -9 pm like clockwork. He came back two weeks later to spend a day with me. We couldn't do much because Covid- but we did go for a walk and talk and watch some movies by the fireplace. It was the best. By Thanksgiving we were dating. The picture above is from the night he met a couple of my best friends.

Trick or Treat

Life sometimes moves faster than you would like. This photo is from the day after my cancer diagnosis. Tony was the absolute best and had let me cry and nap and cry again the day I got the bad news. The next day I had to head back to my hometown for my grandmother's funeral. He got up extra early that day to build a fire and sit with me for a couple of hours before I had to go home. He didn't know I took a picture that day, but I wanted to always remember that I had someone in my corner that day.

Day After Diagnosis

This was one of the first random presents I gave to Tony, cause look at it. This shirt is 100% this man. Does he try to wear it when we need to go to the hardware store? Yes. Am I adding this just because y'all need to see it and know how great a job I did? Also Yes.

The Perfect Shirt

Remember how I said my car would perpetually have something wrong with it? Well this last fall we reached the point where I just needed to get something else. Having someone whose hobby is cars is excellent for car shopping. Also I LOVED having someone that enjoys cars be the one to test drive and tell me if it's good. The only slightly annoying thing about the process was the wait time at the dealership. We expected it, but I had an appointment and we still had to wait for over an hour for things. Hence the faces in the picture above.

New Car Buying Buddy

Christmas time means Tony has to wear matching pjs with me because that's what we do at Ritta Christmas since 2020. Please note my matching glasses because I was very proud of those.

Christmas Time

Tony and I have been long distance through our entire relationship. We traded off driving to each other's houses each weekend. One thing we started in 2022 was going on walks together before one of us drove home. There are a couple of nature parks near his place. On May 22nd, before I left to go home we went for a walk in one of those parks. Tony led the way as I chatted about random things coming up in the next couple of weeks. I was hoping he would propose as I knew he had a ring. We rounded a bend and started walking towards a group of trees. Tony halted. "Do these trees give you Lord of the Rings vibes?" I laughed and said they did. "Good." I started to open my mouth to ask why when a ring box was shoved into my hands. I started laughing as I opened the box to see a gorgeous ring. Then I noticed the phone camera in my face. I asked what he was doing. "Online it said pictures were important! There's no one else here to do it." I'll give him this, he is pragmatic. I laugh every time I think about how he definitely made a checklist 1-find trees, 2- give ring, 3- take pictures. It was so him to do it that way. And he did an amazing job designing the ring.

Stephanie + Tony

Stephanie + Tony

Registry