My husband, Tyler, and I met in college our freshmen year. How? Well, I'm glad you asked. You see, as I was walking back from dinner with one of my friends, we went in her dorm. Sitting in the main area were my friend's boyfriend, their RA (who I kind of knew), and Tyler. The RA and Tyler were dressed in the most ridiculous Christmas sweaters of your life! They were getting ready to go to a Student Government Holiday party you see. After we chatted a little, they had to leave, and I went back to my dorm. I left feeling like hey, this guy's kind of cute, but pretty weird. He says that he felt the same, though, he doesn't remember much about that day. Ha.
Christmas break comes, but before you know it, we're back on campus. I really hadn't thought much about Tyler during that time, heck, once I got back I even went on a couple dates with different people. One day, that same friend and I were at the gym, and she mentioned Tyler. I said I had kind of forgotten about him, but he was cute. She was like, "well, I think you guys would be totally cute together and make a great couple. Want to come to my dorm later and you can meet him again?" Sure, why not, right? After we were done working out, I went to her dorm and we popped by to see if Tyler was there. Sure enough, he was there. We started talking and heavily flirting. I started to come over more and more, and finally my friend and her boyfriend decided we should all watch a movie together one night. I grabbed my LOTR extended edition movies (hello nerd! :p) and went to his dorm room. We got through the first movie, and our friends went to bed. Tyler and I put on the second movie, but ended up talking through the whole thing. After the movie was over, I was super tired, so, I gave Tyler my number, and went back to my dorm.
The next evening, Tyler came to my dorm with our friends. He said he had tried to call me, by the number I gave him was some random guy in Texas. EMBARRASSING! I felt SOOOO bad. I actually really liked this guy. I must have been so tired that I transposed the numbers. Ugh. I quickly apologized and promised him that I had not done this on purpose. He then asked if I would like to join them all for dinner. Of course!
That summer, he came to visit me in Texas. Near the end of the trip, he finally admitted that he would not be attending our university anymore, he was going to a community college to get some basic classes out of the way. That, and well, he was on academic suspension. Sigh. He's so smart. Honestly, he's a big fountain of knowledge and one of the smartest people I know. That being said, he would get bored in school and created bad habits. Well, those bad habits continued in college. I tried to help, but there's only so much you can do. He worked so much (at Macaroni Grill) and just didn't want to go to class. He did amaze his teachers, because he would show up for quizes and tests and ace them. They were so confused. HE didn't even open up the textbook half of the time. Grrr. Don't you just hate those people?
Anyway, fall semester sophomore year starts. I'm becoming more involved at school (I'm a peer adviser, a Sophomore representative for student government, and I join more clubs), I work, I have friends, oh yeah...and that whole class thing. Tyler works, has class at a totally different school...scheduling could be difficult, but we made it work :). During that year, Tyler decided to joining the Army. He's basically always wanted to be a doctor, and figured they Army would be a good way to pursue this future career. Now, I don't know about you all, but I did not react to this decision that well at first. I came to terms with it, and decided to support him no matter what. After-all, why would I not? I loved him, he loved me and we made each other so happy...why would I give that up?
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| Christmas 2007 |
Tyler graduated basic in spring 2008, and you best believe I was there to see it! I flew from LA to Georgia with his dad, mom, brother, sister to see him.
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| Basic Training Graduation |
After summer was over, it was back to good 'ol schoolin' for me, and jump school for him.
Then, in fall 2008, he got to be home for a little. Hooray!
Finally a break! Now, all summer we had been discussing the idea of marriage. We figured we'd wait until after I graduated college, but we could have a long engagement. On the evening of September 25, Tyler came over to my dorm to take me out to a nice dinner at Mastro's Steakhouse, UM YUM! Once we got to the restaurant, he seemed to be acting a little odd, but I nothing of it. Once we ordered, I went to the bathroom and came back to the table only to notice the best breadbasket of my life on the table. What I didn't notice was that Tyler had put a small box on the table. So, naturally, I started
Tyler replied, "Oh really? Well, you might wanna finish chewing and swallow that."
Tyler then proceeded to get up and get down on one knee. People in the restaurant started saying, "Oh my gosh! He just got down on one knee!"
Tyler said some beautiful things (that I wish I remembered, but honestly, I was just so happy and trying not to bawl haha), and asked for my hand in marriage. Still trying not to cry, I let out a yes.
We then hugged, kissed, and people clapped. Our waiter came up to us and said, "Did I just see something? haha, congrats you guys!" After that, we got our food, and FREE dessert with chocolate sauce on the plate saying: "Congratulations 9/25/08!"
Wow! What a night that was! I called and texted so many people once we went back to his place. Some people didn't even believe me haha. He unfortunately had to leave me only a few days later. And where did he go? Germany. WHAT?! GERMANY?! How are we ever going to do this? Why is he stationed there? But at the same time, we were both really excited about it. Who gets to live in a foreign country basically for free? Oh man, and then I'll get to visit him, and once we're married I can live there! Not a bad deal.
Speaking a visiting him, my second semester of my junior year in college, April 2009 to be exact, I went to Germany for about 10 days. This was only my second EVER out of the country. (Yes, that means India was my first time out of the country.) It was such a great trip, though, while I was there, we started talking more seriously about getting married sooner rather than later since he was set to deploy in fall 2009. Hmmm. Decisions, decisions.
After much discussion with family, friends, and of course, each other, we decided to get married before he deployed. I mean, why not? We loved each other, made each other happy, worked well together, etc. etc., plus, God forbid anything happen to him while deployed, I would be taken care of. So again, why not? We decided to get married early July because that was when Tyler would be home on leave before the deployment. Now, finding a location around southern California 2 to 3 months before your desired wedding time, well, it's difficult. I actually got laughed at a couple times on the phone. Now, when it comes to weddings, well, I'm obsessed with them. I've always wanted to have my big dream, fairy wedding, but it looked like it wasn't going to happen. Sigh. So, we decided to do what a lot of military couples do, and get married in a court house. Just a small ceremony with some family and a couple close friends...maybe a nice lunch after. Then, Tyler's parents suggested getting married at Angel's Stadium since we were going to an Angels game anyway. Hmmm. I wasn't to sure about this. In fact, I really didn't like the idea. But, after some persuading and discussion, I came around.
On Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at 6:05 in the evening, Tyler and I were married (by my Uncle who is a pastor in the San Diego
area) in a suite at Angel's Stadium. After brief
words and exchanging of vows, we met some of the Angels
staff, including Rex Hudler (gave us a personal autographed game ball) and the communications director. Then we all
had delicious BBQ, watched the Texas Rangers beat the Angels (success!) and had
some good cake. Oh yeah, and in Berry family tradition, they gave me a Angels jersey with the year I became a Berry on the back :) 
The next day, we went to Disneyland with some of my family. The day after that, Tyler and I drove up to San Francisco for a few days there, followed by a trip to Ukiah, CA, to see Tyler's great uncle and aunt who have a vineyard there. Talk about a cool honeymoon!
Anyway...
So, remember how I always wanted that big, dream wedding? Well, in July 2011, Tyler and I finally had it. We renewed our vows and called it the celebration of our marriage. It was a great way to finally have all of our friends and family in one place celebrating our love with us. It was everything I hoped for and more. :D
These 4 photos are courtesy of Stephen Pappas Photography
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