I said Yes!!

So this post is way over due! As in nearly a year over due, oops! So after four years together (five now) my other half finally popped the big question. To say I was surprised was an understatement. I know a lot of ladies will say “I had no idea”, but really they might have had a little inkling that something was in the works. I genuinely hadn’t a clue. So, in order to tell our engagement story, I need to roll back a few years and explain how myself and Andy met. It will all make sense shortly!

 

Frank & Ellie in action

So in May/June of 2012, I was involved in a show called Showboat out in Dunlavin with a lovely family run performance group called Glad Productions.  They were putting on a production in the fabulous setting of their farm (Deering Farm) as part of the Dunlavin Arts Festival. I was playing the part of Ellie and we were having an awful time trying to find someone to play the part opposite mine. A character named Frank. Eventually, they found someone to do the part for them (as a favour), as this person wasn’t really into stage acting or singing, their thing was improv and stand up comedy. I can remember the first time I saw him, my first thoughts weren’t as you might think they should have been. I was sitting out side the rehearsal hall in my car waiting to go into rehearsals (I was early as usual), when I saw this guy (from behind) wearing a pristine white tracksuit top and navy tracksuit bottoms sauntering in to the hall. I remember thinking, “who is that guy (not in a good way), ugh I bet he’s the guy they got to play opposite me!”. Bare in mind I was only looking at the back of his head and totally making bad assumptions. So when I went into the hall after him, it turned out that yes, he was playing the part opposite me, and that he was very handsome and hilarious. Who new then that I had just met the love of my life! Or that in the show when his showboat character of Frank proposed to my Character Ellie, that it would be happening for real just over four years from then!

So skipping forward four years to the engagement. About a week before the the big question was asked, I had gotten a phone call from a fabulous lady named Mary who was the MD (musical director) of the the show myself and Andy did, she also owned the Deering farm with her husband. She contacted me to see if I would be interested in helping her MD a show that they were thinking of putting on that year. So I jumped at the chance to gain some more experience in this area of work. I was so excited to have been asked. So she asked me to come over to the farm/house to chat about how we would approach things that weekend. So the day arrived, October 22nd 2016, I told Andy I was heading off and that I’d be home in an hour or two. So when I got there, myself, Mary and her husband chatted away for the first hour just catching up etc. And she eventually got to the part about the MD position (after she got a text….I now know it was from Andy). She said she was thinking of putting it on in the barn (they have a beautiful stone barn on their grounds). I thought this was a great idea and was agreeing with her taking notes like a idiot, none the wiser as to what was really going on. So she brought me down to see the barn. I was still none the wiser at this stage, why would I be, this lady could act!!

When we got into the barn, you think the penny would have dropped by then. The whole place was decorated with lace, flowers, candles, rose petals etc. I remember thinking, “jeez this would be a nice spot for a wedding”, but no clue that I was about to be proposed to. Mary started going on about how they had set it up for a wedding and they were thinking of providing that for people…all lies!! And then out of no where I hear a guitar start to play and out pops Andy, dressed in a tux playing the guitar and singing the song “I want to grow old with you”, from the Wedding Singer. Needless to say I turned around to look at Mary, who was gone like lightening out the door. I didn’t know what to do or say, I was shaking and in total shock. So when Andy was finished the song (he did a really good job at singing it!), he sat me down and asked me to marry him. In a much nicer why than that, but that is something I’d like to keep between the two of us. As soon as the question was asked and excepted, Mary and her husband were back in and joined us in celebrating with some champagne. She put on one hell of a show. She was so kind to help Andy out with all the planning and to allow him to propose in the barn in the first place. It was the perfect place to propose as it was where the show Showboat was performed.

On the way home, I actually remember asking Andy, “so I guess there is no MD job!”. Ha, I was actually a bit up set that there was no MD job!! Anyway, we phoned my parents and told them to meet us at home. But when I got home, Andy’s mam had decorated the house and gotten a lovely big engagement cake and we all had champagne, I was a great night and I think it took about a week to actually sink in. We are in no rush with the actual wedding itself and are planning on having it maybe in a year or two. But whenever we do decide on a date, I am looking forward to getting into wedding mode!

Until the next blog,

The Irish Mammy x