Working towards a wedding

There have been big developments in my life since my last blog post. Margaret and I had been talking in general terms of moving towards marriage. When we were both at my parents' in Vermont, my mother slipped me her grandmother's engagement ring. At the end of January, when I was at Margaret's for the start of our drive to Slow Bowl, the wine-focused gathering of Slow Travelers in the Santa Ynez Valley, I offered the ring and a proposal.

At first we just thought the marriage would be at some time in the unknown future, but Margaret suggested that we could get married and she'd live with me most of the time, but make some returns to California to be with family there.

Between the time of the engagement and the decision to get married soon, I'd booked a trip for the two of us and Haydee to Vermont. Margaret had suggested a trip for her late-April birthday, but I made it early May after my school-year obligation to work Thursday nights is over. When we decided to have the wedding in the short term, wanting to keep it simple and with most of the principals already there, my parents offered to have the wedding during this trip. It's a trip booked Saturday-Saturday with no thought of it being a wedding trip. The plan is to have the Justice of the Peace marry us in my parents' house on Tuesday, and a reception on Wednesday.

So those are the basics: before I knew it would be a wedding trip, I booked flights for us all to arrive in Boston around the same time, including my joining Margaret on a flight where she will be a through passenger. When we knew that it would be a wedding, I used my points and miles to get Margaret's older son to come and represent her family. So, I worked on travel coordination, and my parents may be organizing something bigger than I'd like, but this is all an amazing turn of events; I'm trying to see what it will all mean for this new life.