Brianstorming Sessions: The Post-Proposals (E8)

In the wake of the proposal, marriage ideas started flowing from everyone in the group.

Originally, we were thinking of having our ceremony done at the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland followed by a reception on the docks at Lake Chalet. While it's still a wonderful idea, the thought of planning a wedding there is stressful to us. We have to pay for however many people we want to come, we'd need flowers, a fancy dress, etc. Again, I have nothing against traditional weddings but ultimately this just wasn't representative of "us."

So when the idea of a destination wedding in Iceland popped up, we rode that wave. Suddenly, we were both excited to plan something we could incorporate into our summer vacation plans next year. During our trip, we found out that Icelandic Airlines offers a layover up to 7 days in Iceland whenever you book a trip to/from Europe (http://www.icelandair.us/flights/stopover/). Based on this, we decided to plan an Iceland wedding layover with a honeymoon in Europe. As I mentioned, wedding ideas just started flowing:

Small ceremony with family and friends who would be able to make it
Small celebrations in the Bay Area and San Diego for those who wouldn't be able to make it
A "group activity" instead of a reception >>A hike, whale-watching cruise, sledding, etc.
Ideas for the invitations/giveaways which I will keep a secret until the wedding!
Outdoorsy wedding wear
Midnight Sun wedding?! (From May - August in Iceland, the sun is out 24/7).

And as we listed these ideas, April told me she was relieved/extremely happy to know that I had been planning to propose to her all this time. I felt bad that I had to pull a Chandler for so long, but am very happy it all worked out in the end. The thing is, I'm already used to the idea of being engaged to her because I had been planning it since October of last year. For April, it's still settling in. She told me she's still getting used to the idea of bringing up wedding plans to me because she was so afraid of scaring me away 0_0.

In truth, she brought up the idea of marriage back while we were in Japan, about one year ago. I'm the type of person that needs time to digest these types of things. Reflecting back on our initial conversations, I know now that I just needed to be headed in a good direction in my career, comfortable with my money, and just level-headed overall. I already knew I wanted to marry April, it was just a matter of making these other things happen. I guess this is my actions in the past 6 months led April to believe that I just didn't want to get married. I think she knew that I was becoming more financially stable and that I liked my job, so she was saying to herself, "What else does he need?!" Well, I'm extremely satisfied with the results and I hope she forgives me for having to keep her in the dark for so long (<3 <3 <3 :D :D :D).

The next couple of days after the proposal consisted of talking about the Iceland wedding, realizing that we are now fiance and fiancee, and continuing our adventure.