When I met Craig, I'd been single maybe just over two months and not only was I not interested in a relationship, I wasn't even interested in dating. It wasn't because I was going through a bad break-up or anything, truthfully I just wanted to be a little bit selfish and have some me time for a while and go out and have fun with my friends without worrying about anybody else. The night he approached me, we just talked a lot and had a laugh, then he asked for my number when I had to leave. Although he was asking me out on regular dates, I kept things more on a friendly level at first, as I had a personal rule when I was single that if I happened to be dating two people at once, it's best to keep it casual with both. Plus, as I said, I wasn't really interested in a relationship anyway, so it worked for a while. I got on really well with both of them, but there was something about Craig. We got very close, very quickly. After all of our dates, we would sit in the backseat of my car at the beach and talk for hours. We never, ever ran out of things to talk about. We could tell each other anything. I always used to cringe when people said this, but he really became like a best friend as well as a boyfriend. Within two months of getting together, he'd told me he loved me and that he was going to marry me. It sounds insane, and to be honest, it freaked me out a little. It was a good three or four months until I could start telling him I loved him first, or until I could start talking about marriage properly. I was really scared, and now I'm not actually sure why. I guess one minute I'm out all the time loving being single, two months later I'm being told I'm going to marry this guy! I was so happy, but so scared. It was a lot to adjust to in a short space of time.
More than anything though, I was scared to tell people about it! Especially because one or two people hadn't given me a lot of support at all, I thought everybody was going to react the same way. I think the first people I told were Gemma and Claire when we were on a Christmas night out. Gemma said something like, "please marry Craig" and I responded with "I am!!" - cue drunken hugs etc. After Christmas, I gained more confidence to tell some more of my friends, and of course family. Thankfully, everyone has been so supportive. I actually found out that my parents got engaged after six months, if I knew that before then I would have told them sooner! They've been together 27 years, so it definitely proves that it really doesn't matter how long you've known each other before you get engaged.
I haven't really told the story of how we got engaged and I've never put that online because I want it to be private. I got a pretty brutal comment about an engagement ring that I liked, so that's why I've never shown my actual engagement ring off online either. I probably will at some point in the future, but because of what's happened the last year I really don't feel comfortable sharing it at the moment. It is beautiful though, Craig ended up choosing it as there was a problem with the ring I originally wanted but I love this one more anyway! It's white gold with 7 little cluster diamonds, so it's very sparkly. I'm a sucker for anything that sparkles!
Our engagement party is in seven weeks, so I'll be back with another wedding blog soon focusing on how we celebrate our engagement :)