Home for Wedding

We had already known where to celebrate our wedding even before the day we decided to get married. We attach a lot of importance to tradition and family and the moment I learnt of his family long history of origin rooting in a very small village in Alsatia - a French region bordering Germany - I agreed with his idea of going back there for the celebration.

His father's family has been living there as farmers for more than a century and very probably even longer - we only manage to trace it up to his grandfather's parents. I love the village even if people are staring at me as if they have never seen an Asian in their whole life, and certainly because I come around the corner with a guy whose family is the oldest one in the neighbourhood. Simple curiosity, I guess, and I do not mind it.

Art nouveau

Most girls dream of a romantic wedding proposal as it is supposed to be the most important moment of their entire womanhood existence. And I do, like other normal girls. Unluckily, my husband-to-be is not in the least a romantic person nor capable of pretending to be one, not even for once in his - and mine - lifetime.

Instead of a wedding proposal, our wedding begins with a reckless "negociation":

Me: "... geez, you know that you are starting to loose your hair?"
Him: *humpf*
Me: *teasing* "At this speed you will have a big clear space on your head on our wedding pictures."
Him: "Then we'd better get married soon!"
Me: *amused* "You are panicking because of your hair?"
Him: "I want to have my hair on my wedding picutres! Besides, you are getting to be an old girl also. It's been what, six years in a couple of months, that we live under the same roof. Don't you want us to get married?"
Me: "Do you?"
Him: "Well, I do if you do, I just want you to be happy."
Me: "Oh yeah, so now it is for me. I am asking you now do you want it? Because I do but I want you to want it also to do it."
Him: "Okay, then let's get married."
Me: "What? Now?"
Him: "Well, not now like now. What about next summer?"
Me: "You are not expecting me to prepare a wedding just in a couple of months!"
Him: "Well, do we need more time?"
Me: "Definitely yes."
Him: "When do you think we can have it then?"
Me: "The next summer after next year?"
Him: "Okay, then we'll get married in summer 2008."

I must admit, however unromantic I am - my friends say that in the scale of 0 to 10, my degree of romantism is about on level 4 - still I found the "proposal" - more like a negotiation to me than a proposal - really surealistic and perhaps a bit pathetic. On the other hand, knowing very well my husband-to-be after 6 years of sharing the same bathroom, I knew what was in store for me. It is so... him.

Later on, when I saw how Mr.Big proposed to Carrie, I was literally rolling on the floor. It was exactly like that - minus the prelude. If the film had been relased before our conversation, I would have swore that my husband-to-be were copying it! Luckily, in our version, my husband-to-be showed up on time on our wedding day and waited for me docilely.

It was in beginning of December 2006. We announced it later, on Christmas, to the whole family.