Our Love Story

Well Valentine's Day is right around the corner and today, I'm linking up with Becky to tell you all our love story! 

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?

Tim and I have been together for a little over four years and two months!  

Mr. Mather and I in our first weeks of dating

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?}

Ok, here's the honest story.  Tim and I met when I was 17 and he was 18.  We were in our first year of college and he was dating a friend of my friend.  We met for the first time when a group of us went to see a Straylight Run concert (don't judge me.)  Tim had offered to drive.  I thought he was cute from the first moment I saw him.  It took a lot of time, drama, and messiness for us to actually get together though.  After a convoluted start where we both made mistakes, we ended up single at the same time in November of 2007.  We hadn't spoken in a few months and he had even changed his number.  One night, around midnight, he texted me and we started talking again.  A couple days later I met him in Santa Monica and we went to see "The Darjeeling Limited" and walked down to the beach.  We didn't stop talking the whole night.  It was so good to see him again.  A pregnancy scare ended up bringing us together and when I asked him if he was scared, his response was "Eh, maternity is hot."  I couldn't stop laughing and I somehow knew at that moment that we could get through anything together and how much I liked him.  

We officially became boyfriend and girlfriend on December 4th 2007 and haven't looked back since.  We moved in together in January of 2010, got engaged on April 4th 2010, and got married on June 11th 2011. 

3. If married, how long have you been married? If not, is this the guy you hope to marry? {do tell}

We said "I do!" on June 11th 2011 and have been living in wedded bliss for 8 months!  

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding?  If not, where would you like to get married? And will it be big or small?

We got married at Temescal Gateway Park in gorgeous Pacific Palisades, California.  It was a small - ish wedding in that we only invited about 75 guests, but big in the sense that we went (close to) all out, hired a wedding planner, spent too much money, and celebrated our love in a big way.  We hired the best vendors we could afford to make our vision of a colorful, rustic, celebration come to life.  It was, by no means, a platinum wedding, but it was the wedding of our dreams.  

Temescal Gateway Park

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!

We have way too many. 

Babers

Babe  

Love

Schmagoobers 

Bubbers

Bubboo

Hubbers (Ok... so only I call him this.) 

Loveee

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.

1.  His kind heart.  Tim is seriously one of the kindest people I have ever met.  He treats pretty much everyone he meets with compassion.  He even tries to avoid killing spiders and instead prefers to simply move them outside.  He is always nice to me even when I'm not nice to him.  

2.  His work ethic.  Even though it drives me crazy sometimes, Tim is a really hard worker.  He works his full time job at Disney, then comes home and works on his side project (a social network for beer enthusiasts called Untappd) and even takes on freelance work from time to time.  He is super talented, a good programmer, and an amazing graphic designer.  I can get pretty lazy so I am always impressed with everything he manages to get done in a day.  

3.  He pushes me to try new things.  He's supportive.  He gets me.  I know that makes the list more like five things but whatever.  I also know that saying "He gets me" is so beyond cliche but in this case it is so beyond true.  Sometimes he knows what I want or what I'm going to do before I even know it.  Most of the time he understands where I'm coming from and the times when he doesn't, he's still pretty accepting.   

Oh, yeah.  Did I mention that he's absolutely gorgeous?

7. Tell us how he proposed? Or your ideal proposal?

Tim proposed on Easter Day 2010.  It was also our two year four month anniversary (Yeah, we're gushy like that and celebrate every month.)  We went for a gorgeous hike in the Santa Monica Mountains and saw a lot of wildlife that day, including deer.  The entire day he kept patting his pocket and I was secretly getting annoyed thinking, "OK... your iPhone is NOT going to jump out of your pocket!  Stop checking it!"  Little did I know, he had my engagement ring in that pocket the whole time.  After our hike, we went to lunch and had margaritas, our Easter tradition (so what?  Easter Egg hunts are overdone. :])  I begged him to take me to Barnes and Noble so I could spend a gift card I had and he finally agreed.  But!  When we got in the car, he drove the wrong direction to go to the bookstore.  I was confused and pointed this out.  He said, "Oh, we're going to Target."  Um... I didn't have a gift card to Target but didn't want to start a fight so I went a long with it.  Then when we go to the street that we would turn right on to go to Target, he turned left.  Now I was really confused.  He took me up to Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook, one of our favorite places in L.A.  You can see all of the city and on a clear day, straight to the ocean from the top.  It is wonderful.  We got out of the car and walked to a spot with a good vantage point.  It was so cold and I was shivering.  He put his arms around me and just held me for a while telling me he loved me.  He was shaking a little, but I just figured that it was from the cold.  Then he pulled back and started talking about how that day represented the first of so many things and ended the speech with saying "and hopefully the first day of the rest of our lives together..." Then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!  I freaked out and started crying and pulled him up and was just hugging him and sobbing.  Then I asked him if he had asked my grandpa's permission!  (He had actually taken him out to lunch a few weeks before!)  He said yes and I said yes!  And he gave me the most gorgeous ring.  It was beautiful.  

I had no idea that I was about to get engaged. 

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?

He is a flowers and a home cooked meal kind of guy.  

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?

I guess I fall more into the latter category, but I'm also a go out and do something original or meaningful to us type of girl.  

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?  

I would love to travel the world with him, but more than that I would love to have a family with him.  Raise babies, grow old together, celebrate our 75th wedding anniversary.  Ultimately, that's what I want most in the world is to live past 100 years old with him and be happy, healthy, and together the entire time.   

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.  

I think we're going pretty low key this year.  We spent last weekend in Las Vegas and are going on a two week road trip in March.  Plus we both have to work and we hate fighting the crowds.  We like to celebrate our love every day and as cute as Valentine's Day is, we don't usually make a HUGE deal out of it.  

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?  

Nope.  We don't usually ask for anything for Valentine's Day except cards and time with each other. 

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.  

I think a big thing is acceptance.  Realizing that you are going through this thing called life with another person who is not exactly like you, who will have different opinions, needs, wants, etc. from you.  That can be frustrating when you want to do something your own way or in your own time.  When you accept your partner (mostly) as they are, you learn to love them for them and not focus on what you would change.  Learn to appreciate the small things, and be grateful for the love you share every second of every day.  I am grateful for every second of every day that I get with Tim. 

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you.

The look on his face when I slid his wedding ring on