How a conversation about camping turned into planning a wedding

About a month ago we were hiking in one of his favorite places outside San Jose, California in Castle Rock State Park. I was tossing around ideas for how we wanted to spend our summer, and I suggested a road trip/camping adventure and maybe invite a few friends to go along with us.

Then he said something like: What if we got married soon? Like, while my mom and sister are visiting from India and the UK?

(Side Note: At that moment, I wrote the headline for this blog post. This is a conversation about camping that turned into a proposal and planning a wedding.)

I said: Yes. Let’s do it.

A week later while I was on the road to Oklahoma City, we found our free weekend in March and we claimed it for our wedding day. (I might have said something like, “If you want to marry me in March, this is the weekend that’s free” and it worked out beautifully because it’s the same day 49 years earlier that his mom and dad were married, and it’s the day that aligns well in the universe, and it’s the day where it rained a little bit and there was a storm – a sign from God that means very much to me and to Murali’s family – and on the first weekend of spring).

That day was Friday.

We woke up, walked the two dogs he was about to adopt as his own (yes, they count in this deal!), drank coffee, ate breakfast together with his mom and sister, and in the midst of a flurry of texts and messages and phone calls from the friends who knew our plans, we got married.

How exactly a conversation about summer camping turned into a proposal in the mountains of Castle Rock and then our marriage a few weeks later, I’m not exactly sure other than to say that when the heart knows, it knows. And ours have known for a long time that we’ll be together for all the days we have left on this planet.

In the simplicity of what has become our daily lives together, I continue to fall in love with him.

We laid in bed one Sunday morning and checked into our evening flights simultaneously from our phones. “I’m B-9,” he said. “I’m B-10!” I replied. We both smiled because the coincidence was funny to us. I loved him a little more.

On the plane, we flipped open our podcast app with our respective headphones on. He saw me click on “This American Life.” He nudged my elbow and pointed at his phone … he was pushing play on the same episode, seconds behind me. We smiled. In that moment, I loved him a wee bit more.

When I fall asleep with my glasses on, he gently tugs them off my face and puts them on the nightstand. Even though he wakes me up momentarily every time, I feel gratitude. And love.

On the nights and days I arrive home from work, the grocery store or errands, he opens the front door and walks out to greet me and help me bring my things in. I love him.

He is my perfect partner to lean into life with.

And now, in the space of 620 words, we’ve come all the way from hiking in the woods, to planning a wedding in a few weeks and then getting married on that day (the perfect day!), to telling you how lucky I am for his partnership in my life and adding a dash of feminism to represent my fortitude and his too (refer to the lean in reference).

What I had thought might be a summer of camping has become a summer of celebrating.

So let’s celebrate.