Our Story
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Ijust got done reading Ytteys and Wilkeys engagement story on her blog. I must say that I really enjoyed reading it. It seems like so many people are engaged, married, or recently married these days and it just got me thinking that there are so many great stories out there. What was the first date like, there first kiss, first time saying I love you, how they got engaged and so on and so on. I was hooked to Wilkeys every word while she was telling the story about them on the beach. I just could see the joy and the excitement beaming from her heart while she was sharing David and hers story. I likey. You can truly see the core of the heart in a woman and a man in those love stories because you see the desire for one another. I started thinking about our engagement story (The Kuhlers family) afterwards and it brought back so many memories. I was laughing at one point and then even a little misty eyed at one point, but it all spoke to my heart. So even though I m 9 months late I am going to share my story from my view. Maybe somebody will read it and enjoy it like I read the future Ytterbergs, but I m writing this for myself, to go back to that week and enjoy the adventure and romance of it. Here goes...
I had heard that Sarah and her aunt were planning a trip overseas for a little vacation like they did the year before. I entertained the thought of proposing overseas for the first time in November of 2004. I had emailed her aunt a number of times and she was a 100% on board with the whole idea. We probably exchanged 75 emails on planning, flights, hotels, and whatever else over the next 6 months. Eventually we came up with our plan, they would be traveling to Florence, Italy for a week and then go Venice, Italy for a week. I decided Venice was perfect. When I think of that city I think of romance so there was no doubt it was going to be Venice. My real only scheduled event was to be in St. Marks Square in Venice, Italy at 9:00am on May 22nd 2005. That was our time to meet, Sarahs Aunt would have her in the square and I would meet them there. I wanted to wander through Europe for a couple of days so I planned to see the D Day beaches in Normandy, France before I flew into Venice. I m going to speed the story up, Im supposed to meet a customer in 30 minutes. Anyway, my flight left Atlanta on May 17 and I arrived in London on the 18th. I then got on a train and went to Portsmouth, England on my way to Normandy. I got off the train, got in a taxi, got out of the taxi and got on a ferry. Took a ferry across the English Channel and arrived in Caen, France around 10 o clock at night. I ran into a guy from Seattle that was there on business, I must say he was a little odd but he could speak english and a little french so I decided he was my new best friend. He told me that the hotels were about a 10 minute walk from the ferry port and that I could walk with him. So we started walking, I had a huge bag so walking was not an easy thing, but what was 10 minutes. Well, 10 turned to 20 and 20 turned to a blasted 2 hours. I cant feel my legs or my back but we are still walking. We are in the middle of some farm at midnight in France. I was actually pretty hacked off, I was willing to let some frenchmen ruin my trip but not some dork from Seattle. He wanted to cross a ditch so we could get closer to a road. He set one foot in the ditch, slipped and flew right in. At that point I just lost it. Laughing hysterically, I mean the whole 9 yards here, pointing at him and laughing, slapping my leg and laughing at him. Just losing it, and wouldnt you know a cop pulled up because he thought it was suspicious that one american was in a ditch and the other was peeing on himself he was laughing so hard. The cop walks up to us and eventually gives us a ride to the city. That apparent 10 minute walk turned into a 2 hour walk with a 20 minute drive from a french cop. I spent the next 2 days in Normandy, walking the beaches, looking at the museums, and going to the cemetary. Really an unbelievable place. I encourage everyone to go and see it. Even if you arent a war junkie it is very cool to see. I eventually found my way back to London and got on a flight to Venice. I arrived in Venice at night of the 21st. Venice is really what you might expect in her head. I got off my water bus stepped foot on the ground and people are just making 0ut right in front of me. I was pushing them out of the way trying to find my hotel room. I found my hotel room and unpacked my stuff. I decided to walk around for a while that night, I wanted to walk through the square and just soak it all in. I walked through the chairs and through the pigeons just speaking with the Father about this place, about the next day. I guess you could say I was annointed St. Marks Square for us, after a while I went back to the room and went to sleep. The following day I was up early, I was supposed to be there at 9. I was a few minutes early so I decided to take a peek inside of the church on the square. I am walking up to the doorway and guess who is standing there.... Its Sarah. I was probably 6 feet from her. She had her back to me so she didnt see me, but if she would of turned around at that moment she would of seen a white boy sprinting across the square weaving through people like Bo Jackson. I hid for a few minutes behind a pillar not wanting to blow my cover. They eventually sat down and I just walked to her and sat down beside her. I didnt waste much time from there. We stood up and walked to the center of the square and I asked her to marry me. It was perfect. Pigeons were around , it was morning so the square was pretty empty. It was more than I could of imagined. She was very shocked. She kept on asking what was I doing there in Venice. We spend the next 2 days together in Venice. Walking through stores, eating very nice meals, we rode a gondola, we went to Verona, Italy where Juliets balcony is. It was a very special 3 days together. Venice will always be a special place, we have talked about going back for a 10 year or a 25 year anniversary. Just walking through that square again and reliving those few days. It is such a special part of our story together.
man that was long. congratulations to the ytteys. My heart for you guys and all couples is that your engagement story and wedding story and all the memories that yall have together will live on, and they will be shared for years and years and if you are anything like me they will be a little bit exaggerated over time. I m sure one day instead of taking a ferry across the English Channel I ll just tell me people I swam it.
posted by Patrick Kuhlers at 6:29 AM
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