Our Love Story: Part 1

Preface: This is something I’ve been wanting to write for a long time. In fact, if you’ve followed along with my bucket lists over the past year, it’s been on my bucket list every single time. And I am finally following through!

I couldn’t think of a more perfect day to launch our love story than today – it’s our wedding anniversary! 7 years ago today, we officially became husband & wife! Our story didn’t start on April 24, 2010 though, but it does start with a wedding.

PART 1

My first memory of Derrick was not meeting him.

I was standing in my best friend’s new apartment – the that one she & her then fiancé, would be moving into in a matter of weeks once they tied the knot & got back from their honeymoon.

Naomi & I have been best friends since we were in high school. I distinctly remember the day I first heard her name. My Mom ran a large homeschool co-op of families & whenever new families would contact my Mom to join, I always had one question: do they have any kids my age? On this particular day, my Mom was chatting with a new family & as she jotted down their information, I peeked over at what she was writing. I was so excited to see “Naomi – 9^th grade” written down. Same as me! YES!

I wish I could say we were fast friends, but our friendship was a little slower. She confessed to me later on that she thought I was a stuck up, nose-in-the-air, too-good-for-everyone teen since my Mom was the one in charge of everything. In reality, as much as I always hoped for new kids my age, I was honestly too shy to say hi and found it easier to stick with my little bubble of friends.

When I first met Naomi, I remember her growing-out-permed hair, her glasses, and her braces. I thought she was perfectly adorable. I was going through an awkward stage of wearing young men’s baggy jeans & t-shirts, since every piece of junior’s clothing I tried on was skin-tight & I hated it. If you ask me, we were a match made in awkward heaven.

She eventually saw past her preconceived notions of me & I eventually got up the courage to chat with her – but it wasn’t at the co-op – it was at volleyball. I had been convinced that it would be fun to join this volleyball team & while I was there for “bootcamp” week, guess who walked in the door. Through sweaty workouts, pushups, spike-drills, and setting practice, Naomi & I became friends. She French braided my hair the night before our first tournament together, so yeah, we were pretty much destined to be besties for life from that point on.

So, fast forward several years: Naomi had met the love of her life in this guy named Paul Abbey. He played guitar & was a wonderful singer, he had spikey blonde hair & a chipped tooth I was warned to overlook. He was quiet & kept mostly to himself but he was completely smitten with my best friend. Naomi & I spent a lot of late nights talking about him & dreaming about what married life would be like. It wasn’t long before dating turned into super-serious-dating turned into an engagement.

Wedding planning was suddenly upon us and Naomi asked me to be her Maid of Honor. I was 18 years old and thrilled to pieces.

That brings us to that day in her kitchen. With the wedding countdown ticking on, we were excitedly planning away. That’s when she brought “him” up.

“You know, Paul’s younger brother is the Best Man.”

“Yeah, I heard.”

“Wouldn’t it be the most amazing thing if you met him at the wedding & then you guys got married?!”

“Umm, we couldn’t get married the same day we met, silly.”

“You know what I mean! You guys meet at our wedding & that sets you down the path to eventually get married!”

“Well, yeahhhh! That would be so cool! In fact, I think that that should happen simply so that we could be sisters!” Hopeless romantic that I was, I could totally see it! It would be perfect! “Tell me more about Derrick,” I asked.

“Well, let’s see, I’ve only met him twice, so I don’t really know him. He’s tall – way taller than Paul.”

“Like, how tall?”

“Like, super tall. Easily at least 6’5”!”

“That’s really tall,” I nervously laughed.

“Yeah – he gets it from his Dad. He’s in college for some sort of music degree, he can really sing! Wait until you hear him at the wedding, he will blow you away!”

“Wow, okay, he sounds awesome.”

We giggled about the thought of Derrick & I falling in love-at-first-sight and then moved on. Paul & Naomi teased me about the idea of Derrick & I becoming “a thing” a few more times leading up to the wedding, but I always kind of laughed it off.

At one point, when they were teasing me about Derrick, I asked if they had teased Derrick the same way.

It turns out, when Paul called Derrick at school & asked him if he’d be his Best Man, he did mention that the Maid of Honor was Naomi’s best friend. He described me as “nice” & assured Derrick that he would enjoy meeting me. And, that’s about it. Guys, so un-romantic.

Out of curiosity, I did look Derrick up on social media. I found his Facebook page, but it was completely private and I couldn’t see anything past his profile picture. I also found his old MySpace page, which had a little more on it, but still not very much. I was able to see some photos of him at college as well as a few of his senior pictures. He was cute. I was anxious to meet him.

But still, even though it would be like a movie to meet & have a “love-at-first-sight” moment, I knew that truly, the likelihood of that happening over the chaos of a wedding weekend was extremely slim. Add to that the fact that he was in college on the other end of the state and our “Hollywood romance” seemed even more unlikely.

I determined in my mind that I wouldn’t dwell, think, or fantasize about it. I simply wanted to be an amazing Maid of Honor & do everything I could to make sure my best friend had the most amazing wedding day ever – tall, handsome, Josh-Groban-wanna-be Best Man or not.

..Part 2 coming soon!