At Dave's Request

This is the first time Dave has asked me to blog about something. So I feel like I have to oblige. He has been laughing all day about this. I don't find it very funny, but here we go.

We had our first fight last night. Like real, raised voices, modified swear words, moved to tears fight. It was stupid. We were both tired, and had long, stressful weeks. We have one month until the wedding and we're down to crunch time: finalizing food, photography, clothing, and...invitations. We ran into a little problem with the size of our sealing room in proportion to the number of people we want to have present. In short, the room is too small to accommodate everyone so we were trying to figure out what to do.

I chose to share this problem with a close friend who suggested Dave and I hold a ring ceremony so that we could include those we wanted to invite to the sealing but couldn't fit in the temple. I thought, "Brilliant idea!" and immediately called Dave, thinking he would think this was a great solution to our problem. His response: "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of." I thought he was joking. Nope. Turns out he's never even heard of a ring ceremony. Balloon: popped.

We met up later that night and tried to figure out what to do. We had our fight, eventually made up (mostly), and decided to decide when we were better rested and had some more time to think.

As we were driving back to St. George (we were in SLC for a conference/picking up my wedding dress), we reached a philosophical agreement and found what we considered to be a viable solution to our problem. We pulled into town as I was drafting our newest insert to be included in certain invitations. Dave hopped out and ran into the bank, leaving me to finish crafting before we stopped off at the printers. Suddenly, I had this terrible realization. I had not only suggested but had insisted upon having a ring ceremony, an event that puts me squarely at the center of attention. Me, who detests having Happy Birthday sung to me because I have to stand there awkwardly not knowing where to look as people hold a burning cake in front of me. I would have to stand there with hundreds of people looking at me while someone said some kind words and I wouldn't have anywhere to look but right at Dave and then I would get so moony-eyed that I would hate every picture that was taken during those 15 minutes. (The sealing doesn't freak me out as much because (1) it's a required part of getting married while a ring ceremony is not, and (2) there are no cameras to capture just how crazy, sappy in love I am with Dave.)

Panicked, I ran into the bank where Dave was sitting with an employee and said, "Dave, I can't do a ring ceremony!" After he recovered from the initial shock of my outburst, I explained my reasoning, to which his response was uncontrollable laughter. The teller looked at us like we were crazy. Dave kept laughing all the way to San Diego.

Our first fight and it was over a non-issue. I think this is what it's like to be married. In the end, we decided on an informal luncheon with someone saying a few words about eternal marriage and the like. Dave and I will probably sing a song. Who knows. I know where to look when I sing, so that seems like the most reasonable solution. :)

I think my favorite part about this whole fight was the gas station rose Dave bought me on our way back to St. George the morning after. It's the first flower he's ever bought me and it made me smile. I love him. Like, a lot.