AN INVERNESSIAN IN AMERICA: Diane Knox gets hitched!
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Well, I don’t even know where to start with this one. I guess, let me officially introduce myself as Mrs Balas, writes Diane Knox.
I am a wife, and I have a husband! It’s still so crazy and surreal to say that out loud.
Last weekend, Garrett and I got married. And nobody knew. We did a secret, surprise wedding in Jacksonville with just my parents and brother in attendance.
The whole day was utterly perfect, and I’m still floating around on a cloud of marital bliss.
I’ll take you back to the beginning of our love story, and it will probably take me quite a few attempts to get this down on paper without tears blurring my vision.
It will be two years ago next month that I met this very handsome American in my apartment building. I’d lived in this apartment for three years and, unknowingly, had lived directly above Garrett for 11-and-a-half months. How it took us almost a year to actually meet is beyond me, but we each parked on separate sides of the building.
I guess fate had to intervene right before he moved out, because two weeks later his lease was up and he was moving back into his house.
Anyway, we started talking and planned a date. It’s so unbelievably cliché, but I knew right away that he was the one for me.
Instead of the whole “wining and dining” situation, I suggested we get a takeaway and sit by our apartment pool, keeping it very low key and casual. We planned the date for Thursday of that week, and on the Tuesday he called me and said: “I’ve just remembered what Thursday is…”
I looked at the calendar and realised it was Halloween. Oh, Garrett knew this, as Halloween is his birthday. Nothing like a bit of pressure to make our date an amazing one, or his birthday would be ruined for life.
I told my mum and dad, and I’ll never forget the advice my dad gave me: “Diane, don’t order the most expensive thing on the menu, and don’t eat too fast!”
This is a running joke in our relationship now (I am a ridiculously fast eater!) and we laugh about that one a lot.
Well, the date went great and we’ve been pretty much inseparable ever since. We moved in together 14 months later, sold the house seven months after that, we have our two English bulldogs and we’re now building our family home, which will hopefully be ready next June.
We knew marriage was on the cards for a long time; we talked about it often and pretty much laid out our intentions from the start. So, one night at our house just a few weeks ago, with our doggies jumping all over him, Garrett got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife.
We didn’t want to wait and with our new house being built, we wanted to be smart and save our money. So we decided to keep it all a secret, book a Vegas-style wedding chapel in Jacksonville and get it done.
Next week, I’ll share details of the day… with some great stories we’ll never forget.
READ: An Invernessian in America: Chance encounter thanks to Les Français!
