Our Love Story

This post is sponsored by James Avery Jewelry.

Hello friends!

In honor of Valentines Day next week and as part of a Valentines campaign with James Avery jewelry, I’m sharing our love story!  I’ve shared a bit about how Mark and I met before, but I haven’t told you all that many details, so today I’m sharing more.

Mark and I met on e-Harmony in November of 2015.  I had been single at this point for about 4 years and we were both online looking for love.  Now, I’m the first to say that online dating can be a wonderful thing, but with any dating situation you definitely have to be careful.  I wrote a post about that a couple of years ago (Dating in your 50’s) and I encourage single women to give it a try if they haven’t.  We do so much online nowadays so why not date online?  Dating has to get started by some method and online is as good as any, from my experience.  You just have to do your homework with any dating situation.  I’ve learned some of those lessons the hard way.

Gone are the days when your best friends set you up on dates or you meet someone at work or at the grocery store. That hardly ever happens, so if you’re really looking for love, then I say go online. That’s where the largest pool of singles my age were located.  We were both signed up for e-Harmony and that’s where we connected.  It started with phone conversations.  I knew I liked his voice, he had a genteel Southern accent.  He was a Southern man which I really liked, his parents were still living, and he had 4 daughters all grown up, and at the time, 2 grandchildren, which has multiplied to 4 now.  From our early conversations, we had a lot in common.  We both grew up from a young age here in the Atlanta area.  I grew up in Marietta, he grew up mostly in Decatur, so we were on opposite sides of town. But in the 80’s and 90’s, for a period of many years, we both had houses in Marietta about 3 or 4 miles from each other, probably shopping in the same stores, living in completely different worlds, never knowing that our paths would cross all these years later.

We both liked house stuff and talking about that came naturally and it’s something that draws us together now, our excitement for making a house pretty.

{Mark brought me home these beautiful tulips that he knows I love, to celebrate our 6 month anniversary last week}

It’s not the easiest thing to merge lives when you are our age.  There are so many circumstances to look at and you have so many factors to consider, including family and children, houses, money, and lots more conversations to be had before you can determine if someone is a good fit for you.  It takes a lot of trust to get to the point of thinking about marriage at this age.  Trust was a huge thing for me and Mark passed those tests with flying colors.  He’s a trustworthy man and has been since day one.

Our first date was to a BBQ joint that Mark loved and it happened to be in Smyrna, a place he had been going to for years. So that’s where we met for our first date.  We talked non-stop for over 2 hours and I knew from the first date that he was someone I was interested in getting to know better.  He had so many good qualities and was a good conversationalist. Besides he was pretty cute and I even liked his bald head! I’d rather see a man shave his head than pretend that he’s still got plenty when it’s half gone.

We made plans immediately for our 2nd date and he took me to the Marietta Pilgrimage Christmas tour that year for the candelight tour.  It was so romantic walking around the sidewalks of Marietta and going in and out of these houses, just chatting and getting to know each other, talking about what we liked about each house.  We had dinner at a great Italian restaurant before the tour and that was so romantic too.

We first met the weekend after Thanksgiving that year and so we went into the Christmas season on our first dates together and that was a very special time.  It made for wonderful holiday memories.  Mark was such a great guy from the very start and I knew he was someone special and I’m pretty sure he felt the same way about me.  He’s a very normal (thank goodness, normal is really good), down to earth guy and that’s what drew me to him and his love of family was evident.  We’ve always gotten along so well and just had fun together and that was such a big plus, exactly what I needed.  We are best friends and enjoy spending time together.  We don’t fuss and bicker, but we do have fun picking on each other and teasing back and forth.

He asked me out for New Year’s Eve in early December and we had that special date planned in advance and what a fun time to look forward to.  We decided to get all dressed up and go to the Square for dinner and dancing and it really was a magical fun evening and one of the best New Year’s Eves I’ve ever had.  Love was blossoming between us pretty fast and we were both a bit smitten.

In late January 2016, I went on a cruise for a week and when I returned, he told me he loved me the night I came home. It was such a sweet reunion and what a wonderful beginning for us.  Falling in love was the best feeling!  We only dated each other from our very first date and then we built on that relationship, allowing it grow and blossom into love in those early months and beyond. We took the time to get to know each other though and didn’t rush into anything.  It was nice to not be playing any games.  We were committed to each other.

He is stable, comforting, sweet, funny, generous, definitely not boring, and everything I could have asked for in a man and husband. He makes me laugh all the time and we do a lot of laughing together.  I do believe God brought us both into each other’s lives at just the right time.  We had both been through some very rough years in our past and we had that in common too.  But neither of us had given up on love and we weren’t bitter, amazingly enough.

We got to know each other’s families very well during that time and felt very confident that we were making good choices in each other.  Not that we needed it, but we got our families approval on our relationship.  It was a risk worth taking again.  Love is a wonderful thing to find at any age and I think with difficulties come a greater appreciation for a really good solid love.

You all know the rest of the story.  We dated for a total of 20 months and got married last July in Savannah, GA and we bought a house together.  It was a sweet and romantic wedding with just the two of us along with an officiant and photographer.

We both feel very blessed to have found each other and just celebrated our 6 month anniversary. I told Mark the other day that the only thing I’d change is that I wish we were 20 years younger, so we would have more time together.  We are having the time of our lives in our new house and making it our own.

When I got the opportunity to work with James Avery again on this Valentines campaign, it was an easy fit.  They wanted us to share our love story and wear our love story.  Have you ever thought about what you’d choose to wear in jewelry to wear your love story, besides your wedding ring?

I along with some other bloggers were invited to shop at a local James Avery store here in Atlanta and it was so fun to get to look around the store and find something that commemorated our special love story.

I chose this beautiful necklace in silver and aqua tones.

We got married in Savannah and it reminded me of a treasure I’d find at a vintage shop, sort of an heirloom looking necklace with beautiful blue stones and  gorgeous fine details.

It also reminds me of one of our favorite places to visit, the beach.  We both dearly love the beach and have traveled to Florida twice with Mark’s family beach trip.

Blue is the color of the ocean on our favorite Gulf coast of Florida and reminds me of simple and sweet times on the beach, walking and looking for seashells.  This necklace will remind me of our love story when I wear it.

I had never shopped in a James Avery store, but there is one here in Norcross at The Forum, if you want to check them out.  I’m very impressed with their story and how they make their jewelry.

James Avery is a family owned company and they make the jewelry, a well as market and sell all their own products.  Skilled artisans in the Hill country of Texas make the jewelry and their designs represent values and timeless designs that commemorate what’s important in life.

Memories are made with their jewelry and from the comments you all left me on the last post, you all love James Avery jewelry too and have many family pieces that you’ve collected over the years. This jewelry is crafted with care and attention to detail, it’s evident in the necklace that I chose.

We all enjoyed our time at the James Avery shop, along with goodies and drinks while we were shopping. In case you don’t know about James Avery, the company has been around since 1965 and has grown and expanded since then.

There were so many beautiful things to choose from, but I’m so glad I got the necklace.  It’s a new piece to their line called the Tessares Necklace with Amazonite and Mother of Pearl and it immediately caught my eye when I saw it in the case.

I know I’ll enjoy this beautiful necklace for years to come and when I wear it, I’ll always remember picking it out especially to wear to celebrate OUR love story, Mark and I.  It’s a gorgeous piece with fine intricate details in the way it’s made and I will certainly wear it with pride.

What’s your love story?  Comment below and share your love story and click the link to visit James Avery and read more love stories! Please visit James Avery and your heart will be full reading more love stories.  

I don’t know about you, but when someone shares their love story, I always enjoy reading it.  I’d love to hear your love stories as well, if you’d like to share them with me here in the comments, please do!  I get giddy over love stories and it makes me so happy to hear when love blossoms between two people.  It’s extra special to me now at this stage of life and was SO worth waiting for!

Love is a wonderful thing and truly God’s gift to US!

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