Letting the Cat Out of the Bag, Part I

Everyone likes a good “how we told the parents” story, right? Tough! You’re getting them anyway, but first I have to give you a bit of history.

HISTORY
Remember how I told you how Matt and I ‘decided’ to get married? (If not, read it here.) That conversation happened in June/July of this year and we didn’t tell anyone right away. We wanted to think this through, decide what we wanted and how to spill the beans. Also, his parents were getting ready to leave for a vacation to China and we didn’t want to take the focus off of their fun. So, we schemed while we waited.

During this waiting time (about 4 or 5 weeks), Matt and I were out on the weekends looking at sites for the wedding. That was fun for exactly one weekend as we were quickly becoming fed up with “almost or too expensive or EW! or too small or just not right” Then, I had read about this place on a local wedding website that just happened to be in the same neck of the woods as my friends property which we were also going to see. Since we were already out there, we stopped by, looked around, and met the owners. EUREKA! Matt and I got back into the car and simultaneously said, “This is it!” Within a week we had a rough idea of dates, prices, what we wanted and what they could do. We also managed to schedule something else….

TELLING HIS PARENTS
We gave them a call when they returned from China to say “Hi” and schedule a ‘tell me all about your trip’ dinner at this fabulous new restaurant we found (Lie #1) for the following weekend. We had them come over a bit earlier than we normally would because we had to stop by my friends place to drop something off (Lie #2). We were chatting and catching up on the way there. They were telling us stories about their trip to China, which was wonderful because Matt and I didn’t want to talk too much about this “new restaurant”.

When we pulled into my “friends place”, all we saw was a really big beautiful yard with a couple of houses on it. They asked if they should come with us and I said “Absolutely! You will love what they’ve done with this place!” As we were walking to the back of the property, past the houses, there is a beautiful back yard that leads to a little bridge over a creek. We walked over the bridge and it became more evident that there were wedding decorations up (there was actually a wedding happening later that afternoon). Matt’s Mom, of course, noticed right away and I played it off as my friend does some entertaining and parties out there on the weekends. (Seriously folks, I was making this up as we went along!)

Matt and I found Bonnie (my new friend and owner of this lovely place), introduced his parents and told her “they don’t know yet”. (which they kind of heard, but didn’t quite know it’s meaning). Anyway, Bonnie showed us around; where the buffet line is, where the cake is placed, decorations, etc. The whole time, Matt and I are DYING! We have no idea what to do next. We thought for sure they would figure it out. Finally, Matt comes up behind me and says, “What do we do now?” (This is the part where it becomes very evident that we didn't think this through) I said, “I don't know. I guess we’re going to have to tell them. They aren’t going to jump to any conclusions after all these years.”

So Matt went back to his parents and explained to them that Bonnie wasn’t really my friend from work and I wasn’t dropping anything off – this was the place we were getting married. Cue tears, hugs and REALLY BIG GRINS. This was the moment Bonnie had been waiting for and she magically appeared with a bottle of (yummy) Champagne, glasses and tissues for us. We showed them the big tree we had decided to get married under and the options that were available to us. We let them really look around and get a feel for the place. We did too as this was the first time we were seeing it decorated for a wedding.

It was very a touching day. His dad kept hugging me and his Mom did her signature "Jump and shake hands" dance that she does when she is really excited. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Oh! and we did finally make it to dinner at a local pizza joint that makes some yummy pizza.