I agree with you…the Valentine’s holiday can be overhyped and overwhelming, much like any other holiday that our culture takes over as a means for money-making and marketing.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t still celebrate the thing called love.

I love to celebrate. If there is an occasion to celebrate something or anything, I’m all in. Birthdays, holidays, anniversary, reaching a goal, whatever…I like to celebrate! Celebrate big or celebrate small, but celebrate we shall. I personally rarely celebrate things in a big way…I don’t throw elaborate parties or buy expensive gifts or things like that. To me, it’s the little things that make a celebration special…a little gift, a little cupcake, a little box of chocolates, a special homemade meal…that’s my celebrating.

I like to celebrate Valentine’s, because it’s about love and I love love. I love being in love and falling more in love and fighting for love. I like having an occasion to do something special with my husband and be intentional about celebrating our love and marriage and life together. So yes, I do Valentine’s.

We don’t buy each other gifts, but mostly just take time to stop and do something together. I’m not a fan of going out on Valentine’s night actually…it’s way too many people and way too busy for me. Last year we stayed in on the fourteenth, and we plan to do the same this year. I’m a big breakfasty person, and so we plan to go out for a Valentine’s brunch date, which I couldn’t be happier about!

For the fourteenth, I have two things I’m mulling over…either a full-course chef style meal with shrimp and steak and salad and things, or doing sushi rolls. Sushi rolls have been on my kitchen bucket list for forever, and I was thinking it could be a really fun thing to do together for the evening. I’m still undecided on which route to take…what do you think?

What about you: what do you like to do celebrate love? Shall we do the full course meal or sushi rolls?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Dating Ben was so much fun. We had the long distance thing going on (new york to south carolina), but we actually did remarkable well at seeing each other pretty often in spite of the miles. There were lots of phone calls and emails and text messages and cards and gifts in the mail that happened during the six months we were dating. And while there were definitely times we lamented the fact that we didn’t live in the same place, long distance dating has it’s pros as well. Of course it would have been super fun to be together more often and be more involved in day-to-day life with each other, but we appreciated the time we did have and made the most of the short weekend trips.

Ben was the most thoughtful and romantic boyfriend I could have wished for (which hasn’t changed since we’ve been married), and he definitely spent way too much money on me while we were dating (he still does actually!). We had dinners at some of the greatest spots and endless cups of coffee and hours of conversations and casual dates at cute cafes and hikes in the mountains and evenings along the lake and tons of fun just doing whatever came our way.

Some of my favorite dates were…our first date in Asheville, North Carolina and the dozen roses that were delivered to our table for me once we sat down…the time we had dinner inside of an old bank vault at a fancy place in Corning, New York…the time he picked me up in a borrowed red Jeep, stopped for Thai take-out, and then went bouncing along an old dirt road way up into the mountains for a candlelight picnic supper in the middle of the woods (which he had already all set up that afternoon)…the many breakfasts he cooked for me when I was visiting New York…and sitting along the lake with ice cream or iced coffees.

Like I said in part one of our story, I didn’t have those lovey feelings towards Ben when we started dating. But within a few weeks of learning to know him more and spending time with him, my heart had taken a giant leap into the thing called love. It wasn’t the love that I thought I knew from other crushes and relationships I had been in…this was something different. It wasn’t giddy or over-the-top or all emotional, really. It was a quiet love, but so very confident and so very right. I knew from almost the very beginning that he would end up becoming my husband, and I even journaled after our first date that “I think I’ve just been on my last first date.” He was just the one, and I never once felt differently during our six months of dating, or ever for that matter.

At the end of July in two thousand and twelve, I was in New York for a weekend visit. We were together all day on Saturday…having breakfast at a creperie and time with family. Ben had planned a date for that evening, which wasn’t unusual at all. We got dressed up and had a nice dinner at an inn overlooking the lake. After dinner, we stopped at a quaint little chapel nearby that also overlooked the lake, and walked around and took photos and enjoyed the perfect summer evening. Eventually, we started the drive back home, and about twenty minutes into the drive, Ben mentioned that he has a place he wants to show me before he drops me off for the night. I was actually not super-duper impressed about this at this point, since I had gotten in late from my trip and was really, really tired. I came so close to asking him if we could go see this place another time, because I was just ready to go to sleep. But I didn’t, and decided we would just make it a quick little peak at whatever he wanted to show me and then go to bed. (ahahahahahahahaha)

So after a few minutes, we arrive at this old house down along the lake and park our car and get out, and there’s this breathtaking waterfall in the backyard of this place. Like, as in something you would see in a national park, not in a backyard. Ben starts walking us over towards the waterfall (through the backyard), and I was feeling a little strange at just making ourselves at home on someone else’s property…but apparently the strange feeling just made me jabber on and on about something because as we were walking up towards the falls, I was completely engrossed in whatever subject I was passionately expounding on to him. Literally, the thought of him proposing that night had never crossed my mind…I don’t even know why I wasn’t suspicious! He walked me through a little pathway of lighted tiki torches, and suddenly I saw it and it made me stop talking really fast…a big wooden heart propped up in a old wooden trunk with the words “will you marry me” on it. My heart totally stopped! I turned around and there was this man – this wonderful + handsome + charming man – on his knee with a ring in his hand, asking me if I would be his wife.

The only thing to say was…YES. A thousand times yes!

So I said yes, and we laughed and danced and celebrated until I thought I would almost die from happiness. It was the best and easiest yes I’ve ever said, and I’ve never.ever.ever had a moment of doubt that he was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

Up next…our wedding!

What about you: what’s been your favorite date?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!