We met Sue shortly after we moved into this house. Ryan called from Arizona, where he was going to school. He wanted to come for the 4th of July, and was it OK if he brought some friends with him. I told him to bring sleeping bags, we didn't have extra beds. He showed up with five girls; the girl he was dating, Susan, and three others. All of them were lovely, fun, talented, helpful girls. We probably would have been happy with any of them.
One day, a few months later, we were in Arizona for something...can't remember what. We wanted to go to the temple, but we needed someone to sit with Meghan, who was only six at the time. It must have been a wedding we were there for, because family members weren't an option, they were either going with us, or watching their own siblings. Ryan came over, and we were kind of giving him a hard time, "wow, if we only knew someone who knew some single girls who like to babysit". We suggested Susan, but he initially nixed it, saying that he thought she had a "thing" for him, so she'd surely babysit for him, but he didn't want to take advantage of that because he wasn't interested. We had a long discussion about that, I remember. We couldn't figure it out, she was beautiful, she was fun, she was smart....
A few months later, we found out through the grapevine that they were an "item". We were pleased and hoped it would work out. It took them awhile, Susan was only 19 or 20 and Ryan was pretty cautious, as he really didn't want to make his Dad's mistake of marrying in a rush and then spending years trying, unsuccessfully, to make it work. Meggie was ecstatic when they finally announced their engagement, she finally had a sister!
As we worked getting the wedding together, I was impressed with how practical and creative she was, putting this wedding together on a shoestring. Her parents really weren't in a situation to help much, so we chipped in. She found the designer dress she wanted, then shopped on eBay until she found it in her size for about a tenth the original price. They were married in the spring, so they had the reception in the beautiful back yard of a friend. We didn't have a dinner, just a finger food buffet that my friend catered for us for a much-too-low price. She ordered gorgeous roses from Safeway, and one of her friends did beautiful centerpiece arrangements. Ryan's uncle was the DJ. All in all, I think between us all, we threw a beautiful wedding for $2500. Ryan said later that he can't imagine what more money would have got him; he had all the people he loved, good food, good music on a beautiful evening. What else did he need? Do we have smart kids or what?
They've been married for going on six years now, and are still the mushiest couple we know. He could not have picked a better girl to be his wife and life-partner. She's easy going, fun to be around, very creative, always up for trying new things, very smart and deals with any kind of stressful situation pretty well. A good quality to have, as they have four sets of parents to deal with. They've already had some tough times, and she's a trooper. They work together well, getting through everything, making tough decisions, etc. They have a lot of fun, too...she LOVES costumes and dressing up and spends the entire year planning their annual Halloween party. She's not afraid of much as you can see here and here (both of those links, you'll have to scroll down to the end of the post). She's a wonderful big sister to my teenager, taking her shopping and giving her clothes/makeup/hair/ boys advice. We love the heck out of her, and we're grateful Ryan found her.
2 comments:
Almost 7 years.
I tried to count backwards and that was the best I got, lol.
I'm old. Cut me some slack, lol.
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