...So Am Engaged, What Next?

Hey Everyone,

How are you? Hope your day has been going well?How was your weekend? How is work? School? Family? Church? Did anyone do anything fun?
Well for me, my week has been great, I am actually meant to be preparing for my professional exams but I just cannot be bothered at the moment, LOL.

So yes, I am engaged (actually, we are engaged...)
Sharing the news with our loved ones was so exciting, my mom kept saying 'Dimples, you are now a man'. LOL whatever that means, I do not know. I also shared the news with my close pals too and I was shocked to find out some of them knew about Dimples plan. Oh well, am grateful for great friends who did not spoil the surprise for me but i was still upset they did not tell me something was brewing...yes,yes I was upset.

Prior to meeting Dimples, I have always followed several blogs (I am an addict, a silent reader), Some of the blogs I follow are wedding blogs :) and some of these blogs helped me alot in planning my cousin's wedding in 2011. So you can imagine when it came to planning, I had enough resources to look at (Some expensive ideas, Some not too expensive ideas, in fact all these blogs have different ideas).
So I was relaxed that I can get my hands on anything I want when am ready. So I did not plan anything for the first few months, besides I had to worry about my Msc project and re-writing an exam, so there was no time to plan.

I used to wear alot of fashion rings back in the days, but engagement ring was different for me, I pampered my ring and took care of it like an egg because I did not want it missing! I actually used to remove the ring when I am in the kitchen washing up or cooking, I remove it when I want to sleep (actually that is because I always have tendency to scratch myself from sleep..yes, i do alot). This over pampering stopped when Dimples told me one day on the phone 'Babe, you do realize the ring is insured?' You should have heard my shout for joy, LOL. So from that day, I gave it less pampering although my ring is very dear to me....:)

I was still basking in the euphoria of the latest engagee (erm, is there a word like that?) and then questions started coming up in August about dates and planning as some of my close pals wanted to start saving for Naija Ticket. Well, we did not have a date  and Dimples was not ready to choose one yet, so we just kept waiting and praying.
I got the shocker from my friend in the US, I call her *mosquito (her voice) told me, I had to start looking at wedding gowns as I need at least 6months to order and process. I actually thought she was joking, but I kid you not, she had worked in a bridal store and knew what she was saying.

Well, with all the questions, I downloaded an app on my phone called Guides for Brides Planner on my Phone ( I had to download twice as the first time I deleted it when it gave me a very long list of things to do and how far behind I was as at October, I did not want no app to make me panic so I deleted it and got it again when we were sure of our dates). Apart from the app, I also started looking at all the wedding blogs* I know to get an idea of what I want our day to look like.

However, Dimples and I had small small conversation regarding wedding before I started full planning. Sometimes when he comes visiting, our conversations are like this:

Me: *Big smile* So babe do you think this colour will go?
Dimples: Woman, I am hungry, at least feed a man first
Me: But it is our wedding,we have to know colours
*dishing food and talking*
Dimples: You know my favourite colour so use that
Me: But that is unfair, I do not have a favourite colour
Dimples: Okay,so what do you want?
Me: Smiles, I like blue...
Dimples: Ok, go for blue and something
Me: But you have not asked me what type of blue?
Dimples: What do you mean what type of blue?
Me: Baby, I have researched, blue comes in ocean blue,pool blue,royal blue, light blue, sky blue, turquoise blue, tiffany blue...do you want me to go on?
Dimples: No, please let me know when you decide which blue, am okay with blue.

LOOOOL...so that is an excerpt of colour conversation....it amazes me how some men think colours ends with red, black, grey, white.....

Which reminds me, Dimples and I went to visit our mutual friend who recently got married. We were looking at the wedding album, and husband said he is wearing a Navy blue suit and the wife was so confused and said No love, I told you get a Navy blue suit, You bought a black suit....they are different colours...He argued that its similar...the wife and I gave up on him..

The next series of posts will be all about planning process and things we have done, not done, yet to do...Everything planning, I will share with you by God's Grace



*Some of the blogs I stalk are: Bella Naija, Aisle Perfect, Everything Weddings and More, Wedding feferity, Nigerian Weddings, Wedding Digest Nigeria.

Have a nice day ahead and remember to smile,no matter how difficult it is right now, things will work out for your good in Jesus name. Amen.

Love,

Jackie

Relationship to Getting Engaged....

Hi Everyone,

Hope you have all had a good week and looking forward to a nice weekend ahead. Just make sure you do something fun for the weekend, go out, stay indoors, either way just have fun and remain positive.

I will continue from the previous post, hope you stayed glued to the end of that long post. Sorry ehn, I could not help it....

In July 2013, something was brewing in Dimples mind, I did not suspect him (well am a detective, LOL so i always suspect him if he's up to something but this time i did not, blame it on Msc exam and project).
He planned for us to go for a retreat together. I was happy as I enjoy time out in God's presence. I was even overjoyed when he said 'Babe, we will go to the beach from the retreat centre as well' I was very excited and looking forward to the trip.
We got to the retreat place on friday, we ate, prayed, studied, sang, walked around, talked. We just had fun on this day. Night time, we said goodnight and went to our rooms and I was so excited to go to the beach in the morning. (Don't mind me, I love beaches sooooooo much).

On Saturday, I was so excited and he was just laughing like is it beach that is making you all giddy? Anyways, we drove down to the beach from the retreat centre, it was a beautiful day, the sun was shinning down on us :) We were also to meet up with my brother's friends (They are like my family, so I might refer to them as 'our brothers') at the beach too, unfortunately my brother had to work so he could not come down.
When Dimples and I got there, we walked around, talked, we just had fun while waiting for our brothers to come. Later, I noticed he was in a hurry for them to come but I just thought he wanted to maximise the day out.
So when our brothers came, we walked towards the pier (I think its the longest pier in the world? Southend Beach). We were all walking on the pier, having fun, brothers in front walking, us at the back, holding hands (as usual). I was enjoying this until the bubble burst oo. Suddenly, Dimples said 'Babe, we need to run to the end of the pier' . I was very confused, so I said, but who is chasing us? Why do we have to run? We paid to walk not run right? What if i fall down or fall into the water? Do you remember I cannot swim? And all Dimples said was just trust me and I said bros, I trust you but my fear of falling off will not let me run, by this time he was getting upset and our brothers too were like they cannot understand why i wont run. So i told them to run, I Jackie will walk, so I kept walking and left them behind debating.

As I walked on, I heard a song playing (Dejavu moment happened to me as I remembered I heard that same song on Dimples Ipad and he kept playing it the night before) So I stopped walking because I could here Dimples saying wait wait. I turned around and Lo and behold, he was singing the song and walking towards me. I was shocked and confused as to why he was singing. He kept singing and walking towards me (by this time, there were few people walking on the pier so it was private), when he got to my front, he got on one knee, I saw a plane flying over us carrying a banner with the inscription *Jackie (erm, with my birthname) will you marry me, by this time i was emotional, then he said some adorable words (I think I remember hearing, I know you are the one for me, will you be my wife and mother of my kids, he did say more than that but thats all I heard), and then I said yes yes yes!!! And we finally made it to the end of the pier and i did not have to run.

When we got to the end of the pier, I was made to understand that the plane was meant to be at the end of the pier hence why they needed me to run and I also realised why our brothers came...to give support.

After the proposal, we went to the theme park, we had one of the best milkshakes I have ever tasted at one of the stores there, we went on the rides, and he played a game and won me my despicable me teddy (I think I recently watched the movie at that time and loved the banananaa potato song).
Overall, it was a lovely day, I enjoyed myself and loved (still do) the proposal.
So this is how our journey continued....from friendship to relationship to getting engaged.....Thank God for all.

Dimples, someday you will read this(I suspect you will find me someday), I love you very much and can't wait to say yes all over again to you in the presence of our loved ones.

*Remember to smile and live
*Put God first in all you do

Love,
Jackie

From Friendship to Relationship.....

Hello everyone,
Hope you are all doing great and having a nice day wherever you are.
Okay moving on to today's post,its a continuation of our story.

Our friendship grew so strong and our loved ones around us always questioned and teased us about the friendship. Even our parents questioned our friendship. Let me say this before I forget, in our early days of friendship, I told my mom that I have a new friend and his name is Dimples. This is how that conversation went:

Mom: So where is he from?
Me: He's British
Mom: No, where is he originally from?
Me: Nigeria
Mom: Why don't you want to tell me where in Nigeria
Me: Erm, mom we are just friends oo but he is Ibadan
Mom: WHAT?!! No, you cannot marry an Ibadan man o, ha no o, they do not take care of their wives. Don't you remember your aunties?
Me: Mom, its not that serious, we are just friends and marriage is not on my mind, I have school to focus on.
Mom: We will talk about the marriage part later but go and tell dimples you cannot marry him. I will tell your aunties to call you.
Me: *Shocked* But why?
*Mum drops phone, 5minutes later, all my mom's siblings called me and conversation was more like...he is Ibadan...* It was a funny conversation and I was just laughing throughout as they all took it serious like i said I am getting married oo. Hmm
(But today, my mom can have loooong conversations with dimples o. Apparently he is a diluted Ibadan and different person).

So our parents knew about our friendship so it was easy for them to question us separately, what are you doing? where is this going? Most times I got upset like cant you have a friend without all these questions coming up? Na wa o.
Apart from parents, friends also interrogated us daily and questioned the friendship too. Even people that we did not know, random people on the street will say things like -'you guys look great together' and we have to say thank you but we are friends and they always have shocked expressions.
Despite the intrusion and interrogations, we remained friends. Sometimes we discuss the interrogations and conclude that we cannot work together, we both have stubborn personalities and that cannot work for us. Well, don't blame me, I grew up a tom boy and my stubborn nature never left me.

However, one thing we both did is committed it to God so only His Will shall be done.

In December 2012, we were both in Nigeria for holiday with our respective families and we had a weird skype conversation:
Dimples: Are you sure you want to marry me Jackie?
Me: Shocked face. Dud we are not in a relationship neither are we an item neither have you proposed
Dimples: You know I do not like the whole dating thing? If I am sure I want to marry someone, what is the point of dating?
Me: *shy smile*
Dimples: Why are you shy?
Me: No, am not shy. Anyway for me, I want to be in a relationship, progress to proposal, progress to courtship and planning a wedding stage and getting married. Its all a process and you get to learn at every stage too.
Dimples: Erm, whats all the long procedure? Cant you just go to proposal stage? Na wa o. So, is that what you want?
Me: *Shy* yes that is how I want it.
Dimples: Ok. We will keep praying to God for direction.

Okay, this post is getting long. LOL

In February 2013, he officially asked me to be in a relationship with him (in his words, be my lady). I said yes (my first yes to him, i suppose?) So our formal relationship began. We got to know more about each other at this stage and we learnt so much.

We continued to grow all by God's grace, our friendship blossomed more too. We bless the Lord, we are still growing and learning more daily. At the time he asked me to be his lady, we were both convinced in our heart that this is it for us and we could be more than friends.

So February 2013 was the beginning of our journey together as a couple.

*Stay tuned...our story continues
Have a blessed week ahead.

Love,
Jackie

How we Met...

In summer 2010, i moved houses and was a newbie in the area. I had to find a church to worship at and it was quite difficult for me to find one that was close to home so i wont get lazy to go to church during winter.
Well, i found a church right at the back of my house, I attended just one service and I felt it was just too quiet for me. LOL. So i left and started my search again. My mom told me to find a RCCG branch near me so i decided to hunt down one. At last, I found one suitably located from my house, I was excited. That church was the beginning of our journey to being friends.
I met dimples in church but we did not become friends instantly. I was introduced to the Singles Department of the church and i got introduced to dimples officially, however we still did not talk to each other.

I was walking with two of my friends in uni one day and I saw dimples from afar, I was shocked and surprised to say the least. I did not know he attended the same university as I did. I did not want to say hi, I contemplated this while walking and just thought okay, I will walk pass him and pretend I did not see him, afterall I am shortsighted and I was not wearing my glasses. But no, that was not God's plan oo. By the time he got in front of me, we had our first ever conversation:

Dimples: Hi, your Jackie from church
Me: *Smiling*
Dimples: So you attend this uni?
Me: Yes, I do and you?
Dimples: Yes
Me: Okay *awkward silence*
Dimples: Okay see you around
Me: Okay you too. Bye

My two friends: Who was that? What was that about?
Me: I don't know, he is someone I know from my church
My friends: Hmm okay,lets go.

And that was our first conversation. However, we still ignored each other abit but if our paths crossed we did say hi to each other and apparently according to dimples, I bullied him at a point and he just thought this girl is weird, let me stay away..LOL.* I am not weird*
Anyway, our 'hi' grew into friendship along the line to 'how are you' and blossomed into more detailed conversations.
We became friends,we always encouraged each other, started praying together, doing bible studies, talking on phone etc. In fact, I will say we grew to becoming bestfriends till date.

Till this day, we are both grateful to God for making our paths cross to blossom into friendship and much more....

May God grant you friends (no matter the sex) that will help you discover yourself and influence you positively.

Love,
Jackie

Introduction?

Hi,

My name is Jackie, welcome to my blogworld. I created this blog to anonymously talk about me and dimples journey down the aisle. Who is Dimples you say? He is the man I am ready to spend the rest of my life with.
I am going to be giving updates on the wedding planning, how we started, where we are etc. I hope you will enjoy the ride.

Thanks for stopping bye.

Love,
Jackie

*Have a pleasant week ahead*