OUR LOVE STORY + 10 VALENTINE’S DAY GIFT IDEAS FOR HIM AND HER

 

 

It’s only taken me almost 9 years to write Our Love Story. So gear up, because with Valentine’s Day right around the corner,  I am going to be telling you just that, but not only will you get my story, you will get to read Brandon’s version too. Because of course, we can never get our love story straight, even our first time meeting each other is different! (how can that be? keep reading to find out) His story summed up is basically how I couldn’t resist him, and begged for him to marry me, and mine is the truth 🙂

Not only will you hear the stories of how Brandon and I met, but you can pull inspiration from the 10 Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas for Him and Her that we compiled together to give to your spouse, or for you to hint to your husband for the gifts you hope to receive this year.
Enjoy!

 

OUR LOVE STORY + 10 VALENTINE’S DAY GIFT IDEAS FOR HIM AND HER

 

HAVE YOU SEEN MY VALENTINE’S GIFT IDEAS FOR KIDS — SEE THEM HERE 

SHOP THESE VALENTINE’S DAY GIFTS FOR HIM

 

ONE  //  TWO  // THREE  //  FOUR  

FIVE  //  SIX  // SEVEN  // EIGHT 

NINE  // TEN –Use Code NAVYGRACE10 for 10% off

…

 

 

 

Camilla’s Version of Our Love Story 

 

It all started back in 2010, my first year of college at ISU. With a very busy schedule of being a bengal dancer (the college dance team), a full schedule with classes, and of course enjoying my first year as a freshman doing all the freshman things. Meeting new guys and a potential husband wasn’t really on my radar. I was also dating a boy from High School, who now lived an hour away. So as you can see it just wasn’t my focus.

 

I spent a lot of my time with my roommates until they invited a lot of young guys over. Majority, if not all, not my typical taste. During those times is when I would sneak away over to my cousins house or nights out bowling with him and his friends. That is when I got to know Brandon. Our first time meeting (that I remember) was after an ISU Basketball game, where I was on the sidelines cheering/dancing and performing at half time. I noticed my cousin there, went over to say hello. And that became our first introduction.

All I could think of was how embarrassed I was that my cousin, and his friend I just met just saw me screw up a small part in our dance during the half time show. I wasn’t even really engaged in our conversation because that thought consumed my mind. — Our story sure isn’t a love at first sight kind of story.

 

Fast forward a few months of Brandon and I becoming familiar with each other. We spent a lot of time together in group settings with several friends. He wasn’t dating anyone, although probably was dating around. 🙂 And I was the girl with a boyfriend back in my home town. So we connected and became good friends.

 

How Camilla Started to Work for Brandon

A little while later, Brandon asked if I could use some extra money, and asked if I would be willing to do some assistant work for him. At the time, he and a friend started a home insulation company and he needed help with office work. It was perfect for me, a broke college girl with little to no extra time to work more hours than I already was managing an apartment complex. I only worked for Brandon for a couple months before he moved his business to Colorado.

We kept in touch by texting and a few phone calls. I had known Brandon wasn’t going to be staying in Colorado long, before moving again to another city for the summer to continue doing home insulation. It was me who asked if Brandon needed assistant help over the summer. He agreed to the idea and after my semester ended, I packed my bags.

Right before I left, my manager (who Brandon knew through mutual friends) said something I’ll never forget. He said  “you’re going to marry that guy”. Of course I didn’t believe him, because for all I knew I was going to end up with the boy I was currently dating. And I always viewed brandon as my Boss, the guy I worked for. And in all honestly, he just seemed too old to me! But for an 18 year old, 25 does seem old! …. little did I know.

 

Our Friendship Grew

Once I made the move to Fargo, North Dakota. I was young. Only 18 at the time, so my parents drove me out to Fargo to drop me off. Because I was basically still a baby in their eyes! Luckily my parents had the opportunity to meet Brandon at my cousins wedding, which was right before I moved. I was not at the wedding unfortunately, but I did hear all the details. And how my parents felt comfortable and confident about the situation. Even if my mom did threat Brandon that he better protect me 🙂

 

That summer in Fargo was by far the most fun I had ever had. Our group was inseparable. We did everything together, baseball games, boating, movies, concerts, festivals, NFL games, and so much more. Brandon and I grew really close as friends. I had a few other guys in the group I considered close friends and they would always hint to me that I was only there for the summer to work to end up being Brandon’s girlfriend. Looking back, I was in major denial.

There really was no point to my job. None at all. Most days, I would answer a few phone calls to schedule appointments for the reps, but I could answer them as I was outside sunbathing, at the mall shopping, or out at lunch with Brandon 🙂 Easy right? He took me out several times for lunch. Of course it was never considered a “date” in my eyes. Gosh, I was in such denial as I am reminiscing this!

So many things stood out to me about Brandon and I started to like several things about him. You could tell he genuinely cared for me, he loved to protect me. I loved that he was such a hard worker, and had created a business at such a young age. He was very intriguing to me, but it still wasn’t then that I saw it.

 

The Big Uh Oh — that Changed Everything

During my summer months spent in North Dakota, another boy, from the office, started to show a lot of interest in me and I fell for it. We started to hang out more often until we eventually kissed and only kissed! Gosh dangit! (also I can’t believe I just admitted this) I did the one thing I thought I never would. Granted I was 18 and so young. I think I was constantly looking for a way out of my high school relationship. I just found the wrong way to do it, in the long run, it did lead to good things! Let’s keep the story going shall we!

 

That night, I knew I needed to call and tell my boyfriend the news. Brandon asked if I wanted to go out and do something with the group and it was the first time I had told him no. He was shocked at my response and begged to know why I was turning down the invite. He kept bugging me asking why I wouldn’t come with him and our group of friends, so I finally caved and said, “I just need to talk to my boyfriend tonight” You could tell by the tone in my voice that it wasn’t going to be a good phone call.

And that is when Brandon said the words “He cheated on you didn’t he. I have no respect for cheaters” — Yep, you can bet I completely lost it!! I started bawling my eyes out right in front of Brandon. Which was a huge hint to him and he finally pieced the puzzle together how it wasn’t my boyfriend who did it, instead it was me.

 

How our Relationship Started

The next day, I texted Brandon and told him that I wasn’t coming into the office until later after the reps left, since I was a giant mess. Once I arrived, it was just me and him. He stopped working and just sat and talked/listened to me, asked me how my phone call went and all the juicy details. He then asked the question, which I secretly think he was hoping to ask all along. “So, are you single now?” I was slow to answer with a “yes” and with no time to wait he rolled his chair over and planted a kiss on my lips. Pretty bold if you ask me!!! From that moment on, we were inseparable. I finally started to see that he really liked me, my eyes were finally open to all clues.

 

Move to St. George… Yes!

We spent the rest of the summer together, pretty secretly. We didn’t want the rest of the team to find out so we began dating undercover. Which was kind of fun. That lasted a month before our close friends found it. Summer was ending and it was time to head back home.

I had plans to attend Hair School in Idaho, Brandon had plans to move to St. George, Utah. We didn’t really talk much about our future at that point. I was never keen of the idea of doing school in Rexburg, but knew the school was great and I was still close to home. It was then that I really started to see how much Brandon cared for me. He made an effort to find great hair schools in St. George, just so I could be there with him. He called several schools, asked what would be needed to transfer etc. All the hard work for me was done.

 

I was super excited about this new idea. The thought of living in warmer weather sounded like a dream, all while continuing dating Brandon. It didn’t take much to convince me. I transferred schools and was on my way.
Brandon and I continued dating for the next few months as I started hair school and he continued his home insulation business. Fast forward a quick 3 or 4 months and Brandon proposed to me! I of course saw it coming and couldn’t wait for it to happen! We were married 6 months later.

 

Fast Forward to Today

We are now approaching our 9th wedding anniversary! So crazy to think we have been together for that long. Our lives together has been nothing short of amazing and I am so grateful to have him in my life to push me to try new things, and support me.

You’ve got to continue on to hear Brandon’s version. It’s good, I promise. And dare I say more romantic 🙂

 

 

SHOP THESE VALENTINE’S DAY GIFTS FOR HER

 

ONE  //  TWO  // THREE  //  FOUR  

FIVE  //  SIX  // SEVEN  – Use code CAMILLA15 for 15% off

EIGHT  //  NINE (sweatshirt and sweats)  // TEN 

…

 

Brandon’s Version of Our Love Story

 

When Camilla and I first met, I had just finished college, and Camilla had just started her freshman year. There was quite a bit of an age difference, me being 7 years older than Camilla. But I always thought Camilla was super cute ever since her brother had shown me a picture of her when we traveled together a couple years before. I was lucky enough to meet and know a lot of her family before I actually got to meet her, which made me interested in getting to know her.

 

We first met during a wedding at her cousins house, who was my best friend, it wasn’t the greatest first impression. It was pretty obvious that our age difference gap had us at completely different points in our lives. Camilla being fresh in college and me just starting my first business and just graduating college. But I still thought she was really cute even though she was a bit young and naive. As we hung out, I thought of ways I could get to know Camilla a little bit better to see if there was any sparks between us. So with my new company I needed someone to do office work, I asked Camilla if she wanted a job. She said yes, and we started working together in the home office.

 

I Knew I was in Trouble

At that point I knew I was a little bit in trouble because I was starting to like Camilla. However, it was obvious she had a boyfriend and I most likely wasn’t going to be staying in Idaho very long. So I gave it one last effort and asked if she wanted to work for me and my sales team in North Dakota, She said yes. With it still being several months away and with her being so young I knew most likely it probably wouldn’t work out or happen.

She stayed in contact with me off and on while I was working in Colorado and as I moved to North Dakota as my company was expanding. To my surprise she said she would come out to North Dakota and drove out with her mom and dad. At that time Camilla was 18 years old and me being 25. I remember vividly her parents dropping her off in Fargo and her mom giving me the look that she knew something was up, but also the look, that if anything happened to her little baby girl that she would murder me.

From there I got to know Camilla a little more. She still had a boyfriend but you could tell that she loved working with 20 young single men, and being the only cute, attractive girl in sight. It definitely didn’t go to her head. As the summer progressed Camilla ended up breaking up with her boyfriend and for some reason I got the crazy idea, when she told me that she broke up with him, that the very next day I had to make my move. Obviously before it was too late with 20 other guys being there. So I kissed her. And she fell madly in love with me. The end.

 

But in Reality…

 When I kissed Camilla I knew that she secretly liked me the whole time because of the way she kissed me back. Being with an office full of guys and her recent break up. We kept our secret love affair a secret for quite a long time. Just sneaking out once in a while for our first date to Applebees, of all places. Granted it was the only restaurant open late in Fargo.

For me it was the first relationship that I actually knew something special was really there. I knew I had to try to give it 100% whether it worked out or not to see if it could actually go somewhere. If you were to ask me why, I don’t know the answer. Other than from the very first time I met Camilla I knew there was something special.

Although, I will never admit to Camilla I was falling in love with her, from the first moment I met her. Our relationship was one of those of a first love where it was easy and everything was exciting that we were able to do together. All we wanted to do was spend time with that other person. Even though we would spend 24/7 together you still couldn’t get enough, but no matter how much I just tried to enjoy our relationship,  in the back of my mind I knew we would be leaving Fargo at the end of the Summer and that Camilla would be going back to Hair School in Idaho and I was moving to St. George, Utah.

 

With a Little Help From Family

Since I am super close with my family I told my sisters about Camilla and what was going on. My sister Melissa would call me and demand that I would invite Camilla to St. George to be with me there. So finally I worked up the idea knowing that if Camilla did come down that it was going to end really bad or really really bad. (ie: I would be getting engaged and no longer single anymore) She said she was open to the idea it but I knew with her being so young, that I would have to do some of the leg work. I found a hair school in St. George, and got her an application for it.

 

Once she moved down I knew even though she hadn’t said it yet, that she really loved me and I had the same feelings for her. It wasn’t too much longer after that, that while we were talking on the phone, as she was driving back up to Idaho to see her family, I brought up the idea on the phone call, of all places, about us getting engaged. And I’ll never forget what she said. She went dead silent when I said it.  A few seconds later she said, “if you could only see how big the smile on my face is right now”

 

How I proposed

We kept dating in St. George and I knew I needed to surprise her when we did get engaged so while on a business trip to Arizona I had a friend that custom built a ring for me without Camilla knowing, but could not figure out how I was actually going to purpose. Luckily, it worked out perfectly because Camilla brought up the idea of having a fancy evening in Vegas, since we lived so close. So I agreed, and knew she wouldn’t have a great idea of it, since it was basically her idea. I called ahead and arranged everything at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant and a proposal plan with a photographer. Camilla didn’t have a clue.

When we got in the elevator to the restaurant I started having a panicking  knowing my life as a bachelor was about to end. The engagement went great mainly because when I got down on one knee you could see Camilla’s brain panicking. It will be something I will never forget, as 30 emotions were running through her head per second.

 

From that point on through the highs and lows I feel like our relationship has only gotten stronger and made us who we are today. And I wouldn’t change it for the world.

 

 

SHOP THESE 10 VALENTINE’S DAY GIFT IDEAS FOR HIM AND HER