Michael and Cathy had been dating for nearly three months when it became clear to them that they loved each other and wanted to get married. Michael didn't have a ring bought when he asked her to marry him, which disappointed her a little, but the next day they went together to
Moody's Jewelry on 61st and Harvard and picked out a beautiful wedding ring for her... it looks like a
Marquise, but actually it is three round diamonds set very close together; the extra facets give it a brilliance that is really distinctive. It needed to be sized, and Michael was supposed to pick up Cathy after he got off work the next day and they could go pick it up together, but at lunchtime he decided to go pick it up himself and surprise her. He got the ring, then he bought her a rose and brought them to Donnie's.
Cathy was surprised to see him there, and she was even more surprised to receive the rose... and then Michael said "I have something to ask you." Knowing that he had never officially asked her to marry him, she said, "Here??" He shook his head yes, and then brought out the ring and said, "Will you marry me?" She was so happy and excited that all she could do was smile from ear to ear and shake her head yes!
After all of the excitement of the initial engagement announcement to family and friends had worn off a little, Michael and Cathy set about planning their wedding. They went to the premarital counseling sessions required if they wanted to use either the facilities or ministers of their church, Grace Fellowship, and started talking seriously about who they wanted and/or needed to invite to the ceremony, where they would have it, and, most importantly of all, when the wedding would be. June is a busy month in Michael's family, and his brother's second child was due sometime that month, so June was a shaky idea at best. April was too soon to get everything together, and since the performances of the final opera of the season were coming up in May, it wasn't looking like a good prospect either. The summer months are so hot that they didn't want to wind up with an anniversary during the summer when they wouldn't be able to be comfortable doing something fun... so it was starting to seem that they were going to have to wait until September or October. But they didn't want to wait around... they just wanted to be together! So the topic of eloping came up.
In their time as an engaged couple, Michael and Cathy had talked to several people who had said things like "I wish we had just eloped!" ...instead of going through all the ruckus of a big wedding. And when they really started to think about it, the couple realized that getting married was something very personal to them, and they really wanted it to be special and not a pain in the neck. So Michael did a little research on the Web (typing the word "elope" into Yahoo!, actually) and found out that if they travelled to Arkansas, they could get married with a minimum of fuss (just a $30 fee for the wedding license), and there was a place called
Little Bell Wedding Chapel within three hours of Tulsa! So they made plans to get married there and spend their
honeymoon at Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Next: read about The Wedding!
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