The End

Now that Cory and I are married, this blog has served its purpose.  Cory and I will be starting a new blog that will follow our adventures as newlyweds.  The new blog will be at coryandseangilmore.blogspot.com

Rehearsal Dinner

It is the night before the wedding.  We had a rehearsal dinner at Sparks on University Avenue.  Our closest family and friends were there for a nice meal, fun stories, and some reminiscing.  During a picture slideshow that we put together I started to think about just how crazy it is for two people to come together after a lifetime of memories.

I don't have access to a lot of the pictures taken unfortunately, but I am grateful for everyone who came, and for my parents who generously put on the dinner for us.

I am getting married tomorrow!!!

#homelessatBYU

An interesting phenomenon happens at BYU at the end of the winter semester.  Apartment complexes want some time to deep clean and/or touch up their units before new tenants move in, which means their current tenants need to move out by a certain time.  Most places have a short window where the old people have moved out but the new people are not allowed to move in.  The only problem with that is when you are kicked out of your old place but cannot move into your new place, effectively making you a homeless person.  This happened to me and my roommates.  My car became my living room, bedroom, closet, and kitchen.

Instead of crying about it though, we decided to make the most of it and try to truly experience what it is like to be homeless.  We started by making signs to effectively panhandle.  It was graduation weekend so a lot of people were out and about.  My sign read, "Will take pictures for food".  The picture above is actually with Jorge Conde, who was my MTC teacher once upon a time.  Below you can see that Brett tried a different strategy outside of the freshman dorms.

Kyle doing come laundry.

Kyle tasting a pinecone.  100% organic!

We had a lot of time on our hands.  When we weren't foraging for food or doing laundry, we were walking the train tracks, like you would expect from homeless people.

We considered living under a bridge as opposed to our cars.

If you are reading this in the year 2056, you should know that we were not suicidal.  This last picture is an homage to the movie Inception, where a pivotal scene takes place between two characters in this position on some train tracks.  "You are waiting for a train..."

#homelessatBYU

Engagement Pictures

With the wedding a little over a month away, Cory and I took engagement pictures to send out with our invitations.  We took them out at Utah Lake, and they turned out great.

These are just some of my favorites.

We did two different outfits.  Cory picked both of mine out...

New York, New York

In March my dad and I actually took a trip to New York City!  It was so cool.  I had never been there and it was great to see so many places I had only ever seen on TV.  My mom booked the trip for us and gave us the tickets for Christmas.  The main event of our trip surrounded the BNP Paribas Showdown between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick.  I was really excited to see them play.  We had seen Roddick play before, but never Federer.  The tennis match was in Madison Square Garden, but wasn't actually until the last day of our trip, so we explored the city for a few days.

Our first night we hit up Times Square.  Even at 10-11 pm it was crowded with people.  They also had one of the cooler Disney stores I had been to, complete with specialty New York Vinylmations.

The next morning we headed to ground zero and the World Trade Center Memorial.  We found the name of Chris Newton, one of my dads very good friends from high school, on the memorial.  He was in the plane that hit the Pentagon.

This is one of the only pictures with me and Dad both in it because he was mostly behind the camera, but we found our reflection in a building at the memorial and took a few pictures.  I think we were laughing because we knew people were probably wondering how much more tourist-y we could get.

We caught a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, which was cool.  

We also got some pictures by the Wall Street Bull, which isn't actually on Wall Street, but is close.  There were some barricades put up so we couldn't actually touch it.

Our last morning we ate breakfast at the Irish Times Pub across the street from Madison Square Garden, for some traditional Irish breakfast.  While we were there our waiter INSISTED that before we left New York we had to go to Central Park specifically to Strawberry Fields, which is a section of the park dedicated to John Lennon.  We thought, "Sure, why not?" So we jumped on the subway and headed out there.  And boy are we glad!  Just kidding.  There was almost nothing there.  It literally is just trees and a walkway, with a circle mosaic in the ground that said, "Imagine."  I guess it would be moving if you were a big Lennon fan, but for me it was underwhelming.

What was nice about going there though, was that on the walk back we ran into the Manhattan temple.  All in all it was an awesome trip to New York with my dad.

We're Engaged!!!

We are engaged!

I popped the question to Cory.  We are more in love than ever and are committed to spending the rest of eternity together.  We are looking at an April wedding!

Cory and I had been talking about getting married and decided that we did want to spend forever together sometime in mid-December 2011. We went ring shopping after Christmas and decided to do a custom ring, which was going to take about a month. So the month rolls along and every week we meet with the jeweler to check on the progress of the ring. Then, a week before the ring was supposed to be done, I got a call that it was finished ahead of schedule. I quickly realized that I could propose a week before Cory was expecting it, so I started planning.

 

It was our 10 month anniversary, so I told Cory that I had planned a special date for the occasion as a smokescreen for my real intention, which was to propose. Before the date, I practiced proposing to my roommate, Joseph, in our apartment. I thought out and practiced exactly what I wanted to say to her when I went to one knee, because I don't believe in all that talk-off-the-top-of-your-head nonsense. Winging it is not romantic to me. A purposeful, planned-out, thoughtful expression of my love for her was what I wanted to do. So I practiced with Joseph. He said "yes" to me each time to boost my confidence. #Bros4Life I also practiced hugging him multiple times with the ring box in my jacket pocket because I was afraid Cory would feel it bulging through my coat. The box was seriously so freaking massive. I hated it. It was unnecessary, to say the least. #SmallerBoxPlease The entire night I had to make sure that Cory was only on my right side, because the box was in my left pocket and its gravitational pull would have sucked Cory into its dark void. It was like I had an abdominal tumor. Am I talking too much about the box? #SorryNotSorry

Cory lived in the attic apartment of the blue house when we started dating, and we spent a lot of time sitting out on the roof. It was where we decided to start dating, and where we had our first kiss, so I wanted it to be where I proposed. Problem: Strangers were now living in that house. I went over and explained to the girls living there that I wanted to propose to my girlfriend who used to live there on the roof of the apartment...and I didn't want them there interrupting my master plan. They became very giddy and all made plans to go out for a few hours that night, and went on and on about how romantic that sounded. #SorryLadiesImTaken So the groundwork was laid, and it was time for the main event.

I picked Cory up and took her our for some hot chocolate, and then we went to get some cupcakes, always making sure she was standing on my right side. #TumorProblems I had gotten her a cupcake on pretty much every month anniversary we had together, so it fit in well with the 10-month anniversary theme. We headed up to the roof and she was confused why we were up there when she didn't live there anymore. I told her that I talked to the girls and that we weren't going to be bothered. Then we sat down and ate our cupcakes and drank hot chocolate (It was February so it was freezing outside). It was then that I realized we were sitting down, but I needed both of us standing up, so that I could kneel on one knee. So I asked her to dance with me, which was the only thing I could think of, but we didn't have music, so it was just us swaying back and forth in silence. We started talking about our feelings and our future, and I expressed to her how much I felt like I could trust her and open up to her about anything, and share my thoughts and feelings with her at all times. I mentioned how I felt like I could always talk to her. It felt like the right time to do what I had already practiced time and time again. #ShowTime

I knelt down and pulled the enormous ring box out. Cory immediately put her hands to her face and I started my speech. Problem: Whatever came out of my mouth was not my planned speech. #TongueTied I knew for a fact that Cory wanted to marry me. There was no question in my mind that she was going to say "Yes!", but I still felt so nervous! A wave of fear kind of came over me and I got flustered. The significance of what I was about to ask her hit me like a ton of bricks. I was basically asking her to trust me with the rest of her life. So down on one knee, with the ring box open, I blanked. I ended up saying something to the effect of, "Cory....will you...talk with me....forever?" WHAT? WHAT WAS THAT? WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? THIS IS NOT WHAT WE PRACTICED! All these thoughts ran through my head immediately after those words came out of my mouth. Cory immediately said, "YES!" and started leaning forward to hug me, but I couldn't let her. Redemption was needed. I stuck my arm out, stopped her, and said, "Wait. That isn't what I wanted to say." #DoOver

So I made her stand there while I closed the ring box, and opened it back up, and delivered my practiced speech. It was incredibly anti-climactic, and ironically I no longer remember what I even said, even though at the time it seemed so important to me. I only remember, "Cory....will you...talk with me....forever?" #Idiot

I can only laugh looking back on it. I don't think she even thought anything was weird with my proposal until I made her wait for me to do it over. She definitely didn't know that I would be proposing that night, so it was fun to surprise her a week earlier than she thought possible.

 

Was that too much information? If it was then DEAL WITH IT BECAUSE I'M IN LOVE AND I DON'T CARE WHO KNOWS IT!

Christmas 2011

The semester ended and Christmas break began.  There are always plenty of holiday parties at BYU, and we always take a picture with Justin Bieber whenever we can.

Holiday parties also means mistletoe, and I looked for it at any party we went to.

Cory and I always were game for the photo op.  We took pictures in front of little trees...

...and huge trees.  This was from when we went to see the lights at Temple Square.

I actually spent the week of Christmas with my parents in Wyoming.  Cory had to work her job, but got to spend a few days with her mom in Idaho.  It was during this Christmas break that I told my parents about my intentions to marry Cory.  They were extremely excited and supportive.