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What are your most memorable moments of Gavin and Cady (or Gavin, or Cady)?
We'd love to hear them! Use this form to share your story. It can be in whatever format you create: written, a comic strip, a picture, a short movie. If you want, we'll then post it here. We'll post a few of our stories below too! <3 Cady and Gavin |
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The Short Stories
And
tall tales
of
Cady and Gavin
as told By Friends, family, and us
Beginnings
By: Cady Moyer
Beginnings are very good places to start with stories. They create a setting, not only of place but of time. Beginnings set a history. The beginning to our wedding, which is why this site even exists, started on May 14th, 2014 in a french water garden. Here is the story of our engagement so if you haven't heard it yet and you want to, hear it is.
One moment can be singular and spectacularly special to the rest of your lives; that's what I was thinking when Gavin proposed. We started dating when we were 12, and in the ten years leading up to the 'will you marry me?' we had seen each other do lots of things. Amazing things both ordinary and extraordinary; travelling, adventuring, studying, graduating, winning awards, starring together in school plays, cheering one another on, failing and succeeding, making mistakes, and celebrating--in short, life. But when Gavin proposed, this was something new--and all the years leading up to it were not enough to prepare me. Gavin proposed in a place I had dreamed about visiting since I was a little girl looking at painting on my wall--Monet's gardens in Giverny. One of the first presents he bought me when we started dating was a book about the artist.
The day we visited the gardens Gavin said he wanted to make it special for me, the best day ever. At the time we were three weeks in to a 60 day backpacking trip through Europe and our pace had been exhilarating and a bit exhausting, so I was happy to hear about the day of relaxation he had planned. The day was a little overcast and threatening to rain, but Paris was so beautiful it didn't matter to me. We went walking through the streets, all lined with blooming trees and buffeted by stone walls and iron gates clad in climbing rose bushes and overflowing wisteria in blossom. We made our way to a park near Lyon station, where we had a picnic while waiting for our train to the french countryside.
Gav had brought along a backpack and pulled from it the all sorts of little luxuries. My most favourite things were there, baguette, brie, chocolate, perrier, a perfect pear, and not just foods and beverages, but also a bouquet roses, and even a swing--for there is nothing I like to do more--decorated with my favourite fabric, a very romantic red and cream toile de jouy. We watched other picnickers, lounged on our blanket, and talked while we leisurely ate. When I could eat no more we headed to the train station, happy as can be. Well, I was happy as can be.
Inside Gavin was a ball of anxiety. Little did I know we were running an hour late, had missed the train Gavin had planned on us catching, the park we picnicked in was actually his Plan B, he couldn't find a tree appropriate to hang up the swing in the new picnic location, and it started to rain. To top it all, he was actually nervous that I might say no...But he kept his cool, and didn't let on that anything was amiss.
Once there, we walked through the gardens of the most spectacular tulips which were a feast for my eyes, while I listened to Gavin recite Lord Byron's She Walks in Beauty, with some artistic license, changing raven to golden. We crossed under a bridge to the iconic Japanese water gardens, and walked around to the far side to take in the infamous view that Monet painted. The gardens were quiet with only a few other people there, an old woman seated on a bench under a willow tree, a young woman taking photographs, a couple in their late 30s, and a group of 5 buddhist monks. The stillness of the pond created a mirror for the surrounding flowers, plants, and trees. As I gazed out at the scene, the paintings I had adored all my life came alive, I was now part of them, and they became the setting for our lives' biggest moment. Standing behind me Gavin whispered the sweetest words in my ear to tell me how and why I am so utterly dear to him. As I turned to thank him for such kind words he knelt to one knee and with shining eyes and a vintage silver Birk's ringbox in hand, asked me quite simply, but oh so earnestly, 'Cady Elizabeth Jane Moyer, will you marry me?'
It may be true that life's biggest moments happen when you least expect them, or perhaps its that when life's moments are so big it doesn't matter--they take your breath away. There was no hesitation in my mind, all I had to do, wanted to do, was say yes. I thought of maybe saying something more, of maybe getting down on my knees too--but it just wouldn't do. I thought of everything we had shared together, and how amazing of a man he is. After what Gavin says was ages, to me only a second, I took my hands away from my face, and with what I hoped was timeless simplicity, I very carefully said, 'yes'.
That single moment I can remember with clarity, but the rest seems to belong in a dream. Ever planned and prepared, Gavin had hired a photographer to follow us secretly through the garden and capture the moments. The picture I've included is seconds after I've said yes; it is our first kiss as an engaged couple, a kiss like none of the other hundreds of embraces from the past ten years together. It is singular, unique, and special. A kiss to both end our dating, and begin our engagement, which is a very short time relative to the years leading up to it and the forever that comes afterwards.
By: Cady Moyer
Beginnings are very good places to start with stories. They create a setting, not only of place but of time. Beginnings set a history. The beginning to our wedding, which is why this site even exists, started on May 14th, 2014 in a french water garden. Here is the story of our engagement so if you haven't heard it yet and you want to, hear it is.
One moment can be singular and spectacularly special to the rest of your lives; that's what I was thinking when Gavin proposed. We started dating when we were 12, and in the ten years leading up to the 'will you marry me?' we had seen each other do lots of things. Amazing things both ordinary and extraordinary; travelling, adventuring, studying, graduating, winning awards, starring together in school plays, cheering one another on, failing and succeeding, making mistakes, and celebrating--in short, life. But when Gavin proposed, this was something new--and all the years leading up to it were not enough to prepare me. Gavin proposed in a place I had dreamed about visiting since I was a little girl looking at painting on my wall--Monet's gardens in Giverny. One of the first presents he bought me when we started dating was a book about the artist.
The day we visited the gardens Gavin said he wanted to make it special for me, the best day ever. At the time we were three weeks in to a 60 day backpacking trip through Europe and our pace had been exhilarating and a bit exhausting, so I was happy to hear about the day of relaxation he had planned. The day was a little overcast and threatening to rain, but Paris was so beautiful it didn't matter to me. We went walking through the streets, all lined with blooming trees and buffeted by stone walls and iron gates clad in climbing rose bushes and overflowing wisteria in blossom. We made our way to a park near Lyon station, where we had a picnic while waiting for our train to the french countryside.
Gav had brought along a backpack and pulled from it the all sorts of little luxuries. My most favourite things were there, baguette, brie, chocolate, perrier, a perfect pear, and not just foods and beverages, but also a bouquet roses, and even a swing--for there is nothing I like to do more--decorated with my favourite fabric, a very romantic red and cream toile de jouy. We watched other picnickers, lounged on our blanket, and talked while we leisurely ate. When I could eat no more we headed to the train station, happy as can be. Well, I was happy as can be.
Inside Gavin was a ball of anxiety. Little did I know we were running an hour late, had missed the train Gavin had planned on us catching, the park we picnicked in was actually his Plan B, he couldn't find a tree appropriate to hang up the swing in the new picnic location, and it started to rain. To top it all, he was actually nervous that I might say no...But he kept his cool, and didn't let on that anything was amiss.
Once there, we walked through the gardens of the most spectacular tulips which were a feast for my eyes, while I listened to Gavin recite Lord Byron's She Walks in Beauty, with some artistic license, changing raven to golden. We crossed under a bridge to the iconic Japanese water gardens, and walked around to the far side to take in the infamous view that Monet painted. The gardens were quiet with only a few other people there, an old woman seated on a bench under a willow tree, a young woman taking photographs, a couple in their late 30s, and a group of 5 buddhist monks. The stillness of the pond created a mirror for the surrounding flowers, plants, and trees. As I gazed out at the scene, the paintings I had adored all my life came alive, I was now part of them, and they became the setting for our lives' biggest moment. Standing behind me Gavin whispered the sweetest words in my ear to tell me how and why I am so utterly dear to him. As I turned to thank him for such kind words he knelt to one knee and with shining eyes and a vintage silver Birk's ringbox in hand, asked me quite simply, but oh so earnestly, 'Cady Elizabeth Jane Moyer, will you marry me?'
It may be true that life's biggest moments happen when you least expect them, or perhaps its that when life's moments are so big it doesn't matter--they take your breath away. There was no hesitation in my mind, all I had to do, wanted to do, was say yes. I thought of maybe saying something more, of maybe getting down on my knees too--but it just wouldn't do. I thought of everything we had shared together, and how amazing of a man he is. After what Gavin says was ages, to me only a second, I took my hands away from my face, and with what I hoped was timeless simplicity, I very carefully said, 'yes'.
That single moment I can remember with clarity, but the rest seems to belong in a dream. Ever planned and prepared, Gavin had hired a photographer to follow us secretly through the garden and capture the moments. The picture I've included is seconds after I've said yes; it is our first kiss as an engaged couple, a kiss like none of the other hundreds of embraces from the past ten years together. It is singular, unique, and special. A kiss to both end our dating, and begin our engagement, which is a very short time relative to the years leading up to it and the forever that comes afterwards.