Two Weddings and a Bus Ride

(source)

I realize that I have never really talked about how Mr. Swan and I met. As I mentioned, we met at a wedding of all places!  We met for the first time at the destination wedding of Z and B, two of our childhood friends, in Negril, Jamaica in November 2005. I had known Z since she was about 10 years old after meeting her while we both participated in a youth academic enrichment program  and later attended college together. B and Mr. Swan were childhood friends from Rhode Island who attended elementary school together and stayed close friends throughout their adult life.

I had met B and many of B and Mr. Swan’s mutual friends but never met Mr. Swan until the day of the wedding when Mr. Swan came up to me to introduce himself after the ceremony. We spoke briefly several times for the rest of the weekend, but we did not really connect until our bus ride from the hotel to the airport in Montego Bay. On the bus we enjoyed talking to each other so much that Mr. Swan invited me to a wedding the very next week in Virginia  before he even got off the bus (I was living in DC at the time, and Mr. Swan was living in New York City). He was a pretty brave soul if I do say so myself. 

I thought going to the wedding would be fun. Besides it wasn’t a date ….or was it? Maybe it was Mr. Swan’s friendly demeanor, or maybe I was being completely oblivious. Either way I totally thought I was just accompanying a new friend to an event. I know what you are thinking: "Miss Swan, how could you not know that this was a date?" Well to be honest, I don't know many married people both within and outside my family (most of my friends are unmarried), and so it did not really occur to me that going to a wedding was such a big deal. I thought I'd hang out, get some free drinks and a meal and just wing it. (I realize that's what some people are going to do at our weddings). At the wedding the following weekend,  I even turned to Mr. Swan's best friend's girlfriend at the time and asked her if she had any nice friends for him back in New York. DOH!! Yes, everybody, I was that clueless!!

Somewhere between dessert and post-dinner dancing I realized that I was on a date. At that point, I realized that I kinda liked Mr. Swan. He was sweet, gentlemanly and fun to be around. If you had told me that he was going to be my future husband at the time, I would have laughed...a lot. Anyway, two weddings and a bus ride prompted a six month long-distance relationship and a now almost four year relationship. It seems that this meeting at a wedding thing works. FMIL and FFIL Swan met at a wedding and celebrated their 37th wedding anniversary last week!

Did you or anyone you know meet a significant other at a wedding?