The girls at work and I went to lunch and saw a table next to us with a reserved sign sitting at the end of the table with flowers & chocolate on the other side. I quickly took a picture before the couple came in and sent the picture to Tyler and told him that was cute! He texted back with “lol” and nothing else.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got home since we hadn’t really talked all day. I walked in the house to see him cooking dinner and the table set up with roses & the homemade reserved sign, haha!

During dinner he did pick up the rose and asked me the famous question from The Bachelor, will you accept this rose? Too funny!

This is what I got Tyler for Valentine’s Day because he IS a great catch! He said he doesn’t even want to eat it and would rather keep it in the box the way it is.

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine’s Day!

5. engagement/bridal pictures: let’s see them!

We had our engagement pictures taken 2 months before the wedding. Way too late, I know but we wanted our pictures taken in Arizona not New York. Also it was just the perfect timing since our really good friend was a photographer at the time and did our pictures with his sister.

Since we had just moved back to Arizona, we didn’t really have that many friends at the time so my mom hosted a wedding shower for us. It was nice since it was just a small get together with family friends. Tyler didn’t know some of them so it was a perfect time to introduce him to them before we got married.

4. The ring: tell us about it! did you pick it out? did he? pictures! tell us about his ring too!

Occasionally I would look online and see which rings I liked and always emailed Tyler the pictures with a brief message, “FYI- I like this ring!”

I sent him another picture earlier that summer when he proposed and didn’t think anything of it. Of course all the pictures I sent him were from Tiffany & Co. I didn’t know where else to look and he knew I was fine with the ring not being from Tiffany & Co. Maybe on our 20th anniversary?!

He got my ring from Shane Co and with his mom’s help. Because we were in college, we didn’t really have any money saved up so his mom paid for the ring. That was really sweet of her to do that! This was why I was so shocked and did not expect him to propose because I knew we didn’t have money for a ring yet.

We bought his ring at Shane Co a few months before the wedding. He wanted a simple white gold ring and we found one that he liked and was within our budget.

But he lost his ring at the lake about 6 months after the wedding.

We never found it and unfortunately we didn’t have our rings covered at the time. So a year later for our anniversary we had money saved up to buy him a new ring. We both actually like his new ring better than the one he originally had.

P.S. Missa Lee and I were trying to take pictures of our rings during lunch and who knew taking a picture of the ring is so hard? Thanks a lot, Missa Lee, for posting a crappy picture of me.

3. Proposal: how it happened, how long you were engaged for, was it a total surprise? pictures of that….etc.

We both were living in New York and Tyler had just graduated and I still had 1 more year left to go. At the beginning of the summer we both went home to see our families. After 4 weeks at home I came back to NY because I had signed up for summer classes so I could graduate on time. Tyler stayed home for a few more weeks.

The night before Tyler came back to New York, we were both online and a few days earlier, I sent him a surprise through email with 100 reasons why I love him. So that night, he sent me an email back with 100 reasons why he loves me. He was slow at responding my IMs and I automatically assumed it was because he was busy with his family and packing. Little did I know that he was on the phone with my parents to ask my dad for my hand in marriage.

Tyler’s flight was not coming in until around 11 that evening so I hung out with my roommate at our apartment until it was time to go pick him up. My mom was texting me constantly asking me when I was going to the airport, if I was already there, to tell Tyler hi and to ask if I was by myself or if my roommate was going with me. I thought it was a bit weird since it takes a while for Mom to text me back and why does she care about all the small details!? I ignored it and just answered all her questions.

So I left for the airport and I remember it was raining. As I was parking in the garage, my mom was still asking me more questions “It’s raining? Be careful!” and “Has Tyler arrived yet?”

I was so excited to see Tyler so I kind of ignored my mom’s text messages at this point as I walked into the airport.

I was at the security checkpoint gate waiting for Tyler to arrive. We hugged and kissed and walked together to the baggage claim area. I kind of noticed that he was quiet but I didn’t think much of it though because I knew it was late and he was probably tired.

We got 1 of his bags and as we were waiting for the other bag he seemed to be so focused on finding his bag. Then I saw a duffel bag come out and only caught “Steph V” on it and I immediately thought how cool it was that this bag belonged to another girl here with the same name as me and I looked around to see who this “girl” was then looked back at Tyler to find him on his knees.

Right there it clicked in my head that the bag was Tyler’s. He asked me to marry him and of course the first thing I said was, “are you serious?” over and over and he assured me that he was serious! So obviously I said YES!

As we were walking out to the car, I texted my mom to tell her the news and then realized that was why my mom was texting me like crazy because my family knew. I was definitely surprised and had no idea what he was up to!

We got engaged on July 14, 2007 and got married on November 24, 2008 so we were engaged for 14 months. 14 months was the perfect amount of time for us since we started planning our wedding quickly after the engagement while I was finishing college.

2. When you knew he was the one: self explanatory..but how and when did you know?

It’s not like a movie where I knew one day. It was something that happened over time. During one summer in high school, Tyler came to stay with me for 4 weeks. We had so much fun together and after his visit, I realized that there was not one single time where we both got sick of each other. So from there I started seeing him in my future.

The fact that we survived our long distance relationship during the last 2 years of high school was a huge thing. We knew that we wouldn’t be putting ourselves through this if we didn’t see each other in our future.

Also another moment was when we were talking about going to college together. Throughout college we learned how to be with each other after being in a long distance relationship then we lived together with some friends during our last few years of college. It was a great learning experience for both of us. I love having “what if” conversations so of course Tyler and I talked about our future together a lot.

We’re good at expressing our feelings and thoughts to each other so it was no surprise to us and everyone else that he was the one for me and I was the one for him. We were even being asked all the time when we were going to get engaged!

So technically I think I knew Tyler was the one for a long time but I didn’t really think about it at the time because I was so comfortable with him and we both were happy with our relationship!

Tyler and I first met on my first day at the deaf school (sophomore year in high school). I was outside of the dorms. We lived there during the week and went home on the weekends. Anyways, so I was talking with my friends when Tyler came up to me and awkwardly asked me what my name was. He didn’t really know how to sign at the time so he was clumsy and he didn’t even understand what I said when I finger spelled my name. He smiled then walked off. This was just the beginning…

Tyler never gave up trying to talk to me and sat with me on the bus when we went home on the weekends. He’d even say “Hi, mom!” to MY mom. Of course my mom thought he was cute and sweet! I shrugged it off because at the time I was dating someone else. I was at the age where I was interested in boys that were so cool and not so nice like Tyler. I enjoyed Tyler’s company as a friend and nothing more than that. After school he would always go to his dorm and finish his homework and call his Mom for their daily chat then come over to my dorm to hang out. My dorm counselor always came to my room to say, “Tyler’s here to see you!”

The body language is so obvious!

The day came where everyone was discussing who was taking who to prom. Tyler asked me to go to prom with him and I told him I would as friends only. One day after school we all were hanging outside with our friends. One of my friends said she thought Tyler was cute and jokingly said that she should ask him out. I quickly reacted by saying, “noo!” and then realized I did like him but was afraid of getting into a relationship mainly because my family was moving to Arizona that summer.

Prom 2001

Tyler visiting in Arizona during one summer

Tonight at 8:15PM, it will be our 10 year anniversary of being together! I can’t believe it’s been 10 years. I feel young but at the same time I feel old if it’s been 10 years already! And who says we can’t have two anniversaries?

We have a special story that we can tell our children some day. That we’re high school sweethearts. We never broke up or took a break. Sure, there were some bumpy rides along the way but not bumpy enough to break up. Even though there may have been some conversations of breaking up a few times but we never did. We even survived a long distance relationship from 11-12th grade. We even survived during the difficult times where people doubted our relationship especially some of our high school friends. Some of them even encouraged us to break up during our long distance relationship. That proved our love was strong enough to keep the bad influences out of our relationship.

We survived all of that and here we are 10 years later! I still look forward to seeing him everyday after work. Even when we fight, we can never stay mad at each other for long. It’s like a fight you have with your siblings where sometimes you forget you’re mad at each other 10 minutes later. We have our moments…of course, we’re not perfect but still very much madly in love!

I’m looking forward to the next 10 years with Tyler….even the pretty children we’ll have in the next few years!

P.S. I think it’s so cool that our 10 year anniversary is on the same day that William & Kate got married!

I was looking back at photos of me and Tyler together and came across this photo booth style picture of us together. It was taken back in college (2005) when I begged Tyler to take pictures with me. It was cheesy but I’m glad to have thousands of pictures of us together!

We’re not big on celebrating when it comes to Valentine’s Day. We do leave each other small messages and exchange Valentine’s Day cards. Sometimes we go out for dinner but I’m not sure exactly yet if we will tonight.

As I was driving in to work today, I saw more than 10 hot air balloons in the sky again just like last year. Love is definitely in the air today! I just love seeing red & pink everywhere…even just about all the ladies in the office are wearing red.

I’m looking forward to celebrating many more Valentine’s Days with Tyler even if it’s just having dinner at home and exchanging homemade cards.

I hope you all have a lovely Valentine’s Day with the ones you love!

Tyler is the best husband I could ever ask for!

Yesterday I came down with the cold and was feeling fine until it really hit me hard last night when I got drowsy. I tossed and turned all night and basically stayed in bed until 3PM today. I kept apologizing to Tyler that I ruined Valentine’s Day even though we didn’t really have any plans other than to run some errands.

Tyler went to the store to get some groceries for lunch & dinner. He woke me up and suggested I move into the family room where it was colder. It gets hot in our bedroom during the day because of the sun (we really should get sunscreens soon). I came out and saw he got me a card & roses! At that moment I did feel a little bit better and especially after we ate chicken sandwiches.

I knew I probably would feel better if I showered and cleaned up. Also I didn’t want Tyler have to see an ugly & sick wife all day long. I did feel better as long as I didn’t move around too much. Sometimes the best Valentine’s Day gift is just lounging around the house together watching movies.

We saw more than 10 hot air balloons in the sky today and it was beautiful as the sun was setting. Love was in the air today for sure!

Even our furries got some love today! It is a reminder that we should also be pouring our love for everyone we love everyday… not just on Valentine’s Day.

2000:

A time when we were friends.

2001:

The beginning of our relationship at prom.

2002:

We chose to continue our relationship long distance when my family moved to Arizona and I visited Tyler in the summer.

2003:

Tyler came down to Arizona for my graduation & to stay for a few weeks during the summer.

2004:

We went across the country together to attend college in New York.

2005:

We took a road trip to Arizona for the summer.

2006:

Tyler and I attended a dance for my sorority.

2007:

The Summer we got engaged in New York!!

2008:

The engaged life when we were planning our wedding in Arizona.

2009:

The first year of being married & we finally purchased our first house together!

Here’s to another decade. . .