Weekly Archives This week 1 week ago

Back to blogs homepage

They Came From Planet In-Law!

Tuesday May 13 2008 13:10:20

By Lexy81

ahh well last entry was all lovely and rose tinted- but now the fear is setting in, not of the marriage or the mammoth tasks of arranging all the details, but the MEETING OF THE PARENTS.

In a way G and I have achieved some thing quite impressive. Our families both live on the same island (Guernsey) with us, and despite the fact our parents live approximately a 3 minute drive from each other- they have not met more than fleetingly. Kudos to us- well so we thought- of course with a relationship that is 4 and a half years old and following our engagement the inevitable can no longer be stalled- and on Saturday evening, G's mum and dad are coming up to my parents for dinner.
G has already asked whether we really need to be there and was some what dissapointed when i confirmed that scarpering wasn't an option. Not that i can blame him- i feel sick to the pit of my stomach. Im *fairly* sure that they wont out and out argue [if only for our sakes], but i just KNOW they are not going to get on.
Especially my dad and his dad- two more different people you could not possibly imagine- which given they are both ex-RAF you might find suprising.
Its little things like the fact that my father can be occasionally rather reserved ( im 26 and im still told off for even mild swearing, he doesn't believe men should swear infront of women at all- fairly hilarious, as most of my friends would probably name me as the most gutter mouthed out of all of us) and G's dad is pretty over confident and loud. Oh and my dad thinks wine bores should be lined up and shot (well not in so many words) and G's father is [in the kindest possible way] the biggest wine bore i know. should be interesting n'est pas?
Im also really worried about little things like G's parents really like to go out for posh meals all the time, and i think ideally they would have liked this meeting in a restaurant- but my parents aren't especailly well off so mum is making a three course dinner for us- which is sooooo amazing and brave of her- but if im 100% honest, shes not the most amazing cook ( unless you are talknig puddings and cakes- my mum is the Mack flipping Daddy at desserts and cakes- UNTOUCHABLE!) and G's father is quite a foodie as well. But he is polite- so even if he hates it- he'll just silently judge....

anyway, so G and I plan to essentially just get absolutely ban-jaxed on any thing alcoholic we can get our hands on- and hopefully atleast we will give a topic of conversation to our respective parents and some common ground- they can dissaprove of us together!

Started getting my first brochures through the post for reception venues! Good god how exciting! but also how expensive- well...... i think it is-
The one place that came through the letterbox today had the most complicated tiering system and seperate drink and wine pricing system i could have imagined- need to cadge a calculator from work i think!

i just want enough hooch to get a hypothetical Auntie Flo on the dance floor and everyone having a bloody good hooley.Hopefully mum and dad will sit down over the dinner table soon and decide how much (if any) they will be able to help us out with the wedding so we can figure out how much we need to get together ourselves [ via a loan no doubt-boo hiss] . I dont think G's family are going to be helping financially reading between the lines of conversation we have had so far [though i did point out to G that the 42 inch plasma tv they bought on the weekend was roughly a photographers fee..... ] ;-)


cheeky-moi?

any way-think of me and my sleepless nights over this terrifying meeting
xxA

Note: To add a comment you need to be logged in / a registered user of the site. Comments are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for their content.

Thus, the madness begins......

Monday May 12 2008 13:59:09

By Lexy81

gosh- first entry!
After four and a half years, a stonkingly large mortgage, adopting a dog and doing other very grown up things like wills - my absolutely wonderful chap decided that we would go to the next step and proposed to me last Sunday.
I'd been definitely hoping for it, in fact i was starting to develop a "weeny" bit of an obsession over will he/won't he. My normally nice rational mind had started delving in to all kinds of strangeness like lunchtime checks of my Chinese horoscope and then cross referencing it with palmistry, numerology- and im not superstitious in the slightest…. So in short, I was turning in to a bit of a loon about it all. But importantly had managed to keep The Crazy inside and strictly on work hours and I don’t think he’d noticed at all.
Given all this, you might find it weird that By, I didn’t expect G’s question at all, not least after he’d picked me up from the airport after two weeks away for work, looking all skanky from being stuck in Exeter airport for 3 hours, and then a plane for 2.Tasty.

He’d borrowed his father’s car for the previous week ( because it’s a jazzy sports car) and came up with some cock and bull story that he needed to drop it round to his parents, so we were going to do that, and then walk to the pub near them for a drink. But apparently, It was all a big web of subterfuge and after he had no intention of taking me to the pub what so ever. Pity then that my husband-to-be’s innate lack of direction kicked it ( probably with the nerves) and we walked the ‘back’ way- not going via the pretty beach at all. Thus, although the plan was never to even go near the pub, we ended up having a drink there, which was lovely as far as I was concerned to catch up after our time apart and for aforementioned plane chaos get a lovely glass of pinot grigio. I’ve never seen him drink a pint that quick! G was really keen to leave.

We walked along the coast road and then he suggested that went up on to the headland. AT which point I pointed out my shoes weren’t very suitable- but he kept on going. We were followed by this strange looking chap in a blue wind cheater and blue bobble hat who kept whistling (badly,). G was just giving this chap the most deadly look! We sat down on a picnic bench overlooking the beautiful sea as the sun was going down and let blue bobble hat man shoot off a couple of photos and just carried on chatting. Bobble hat man eventually toddled off and about five minutes after that- I decided I was getting chilly and wanted to go home, and stood up to show that I meant business . Despite this moan, G took this moment to leap in to action. Stood up. Placed him self in front of me.Took both my arms in his hands and told me to sit down. I think that’s when I definitely twigged what was about to happen, and hurrah! I was correct.

He got down on one knee and proceeded to say the most lovely things to me. I won’t rephrase them here because 1) if he reads this, he’ll be mortified 2) its something that I just want to keep between us and 3) and this is the main reason, I think I can only remember about half of what he said (!) because I was sobbing so much and that shocked that as soon as he said one thing, it went straight out of my head. And then he presented me with the most beautiful ring. The important bit being that I said “ Yes, Yes I will!” very loudly and with a massive smile on my face.

Bless him, he’d done everything so properly, when he had dropped me off at the airport the week before, he’d gone straight down to my parents house and asked to talk to my father about fencing panels- but Dad had seen straight through that apparently and said “ this isn’t about fencing now, is it..” and even more amazingly, Dad called in Mum to tell her, and despite the fact that she had spoken to me three times since then, had managed to keep it all a secret- astonishing given my mum is a big ol’ gossip lover.

So we went straight to G’s family home and announced the good news ( although his parents also new it was on the cards as well) but his grandfather and step-granny were there as well- so it was lots of champagne and G’s mum sticking a camera in my very red and blotchy ( but smiley face). Joyously, she has now published these delightful photos on line for all the family.
Then we zoomed up to my mums house. Dad was away paragliding in Sicily, which sort of upset me a bit that he wasn’t there as we are very close. Mum made up for it all, she was so very happy. I cried a bit more here, as did she. Then I called my sister V who is studying in Exeter- who squealed and cried. So I cried some more. Eventually dried my eyes enough for us to go and track down my baby sister I, who was at a house party and was understandably shocked to see us at the door, let alone when we told her.

So, back to the title of this blog- and thus the madness begins. You know, despite all my obvious crazy described at the beginning of the blog, since G proposed, its like the wave of reassuring calm has come over me. He says it’s the same for him. It simultaneously feels like such an exciting thing has happened to us, and yet like it’s the most normal thing in the world. The one thing I will let slip about what he said on that headland, was that it was time that we started taking the journey together.

Its been only been one week since the proposal, but I think its going to be one hell of a journey.

xxxA

p.s. i promise to make the next one shorter!

Note: To add a comment you need to be logged in / a registered user of the site. Comments are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for their content.