As I continue our story of meeting the love of my life, we will share in the end a truly romantic way to give a promise ring.

Over the next few weeks, I would pick up Marcie (my future wife) on Friday evenings and bring her to Indianapolis.  Each weekend we spent together brought us closer.  Each weekend she spent with me over the next month, she was snowed in!  In Indiana, where we are located, it is uncommon to have so many snow storms back-to-back!  Especially storms that are bad enough to prevent travel.  Yet, somehow, this particular winter, it happened . . . weekend, after weekend, after weekend.  Five weeks in a row!

By this time, Marcie was my girlfriend.  She was the most amazing girl I had ever met.  By April, I had decided that I wanted to marry this girl, but I wasn’t ready to ask!  Our relationship was progressing, but I didn’t want to scare her away.  As a Real Estate Agent, I was showing houses to a couple of friends that were recently married.  Their names were John and Mel.  By this time, they were looking at building a new home, so I was showing them several model homes in the morning and had planned to meet Holly (my other good friend) that afternoon.  Marcie knew that we were going to go to “look at promise rings,” but she did not have the whole plan!

The night before, Mel, Holly, John, myself, and several other friends had found the promise ring that I wanted to give her.  After purchasing it, we all went to the Build-A-Bear store and made a beautiful Teddy Bear in my own image.  (The teddy bear was dressed in a polo shirt and khaki shorts as I would wear.  He even had a top-of-the-line flip phone, just like the one that I was currently using.)  I named the bear Te ‘Ama, which means ‘I love you.’  Holly helped me make the bear and Mel photographed the occasion.  On the way out of the mall, with the ring, I happened to see a small stuffed bear, wearing a tuxedo.  I thought this would make a great place to put the ring until I presented it to Marcie.  Later that evening, I used the photos to make a “Baby Book” for Te ‘Ama.

The stage was set.  The plan was in motion.  Now it was time to execute the whole thing.  John, Mel, Marcie, and I all went and looked at several houses.  We found several things they liked, and several things they didn’t.  Once finished, John and Mel went their own way, and Marcie and I met Holly at the jewelry store.  The three of us went in and spent about an hour looking at rings.  I kept saying things like, “do you like this kind” and “what do you think of this?”  The funniest part was knowing that the ring and both bears were laying undiscovered by her in my van.

As we were leaving, we said goodbye to Holly and returned to my van.  In my van, we began to have a conversation.  That conversation ended with me surprising her with the small bear that had the ring on his arm.  She was shocked and speechless, but happy.  As I put the promise ring on her finger, I made her a promise to respect her and to move us toward a married life together.

We went to dinner together and had some really great conversation.  I was falling in love with this girl a little more every moment.

What is the meaning of a promise ring? There are many different meanings for a promise ring. Make sure you tell your girlfriend or fiance the meaning of the promise ring you are giving her. There are many different ways you could give a promise ring, like the suggestion in our story. You could also put the promise ring in a decorative Wedding Time Capsule and let her open it to find the ring and a promise letter to marry her in the future. How romantic would that be? You can get this unique Wedding Time Capsule from http://www.timecapsule.com/product/milestone-collection-wedding-time-capsule/. To learn other ways of how to give a girl a promise ring, check out http://engagementrings.lovetoknow.com/wiki/How_to_Give_a_Girl_a_Promise_Ring.

What would you give a promise ring for? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Mark

www.timecapsule.com

The post Romantic Promise Ring Ideas appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

You know I have been married to my husband for 10 years now. Not a week goes by that I don’t discover something new about him or our marriage. When you have your own business, it can be very difficult to get away from your work. You cannot ‘clock out’ in a sense. As an entrepreneur, I really don’t want to ever ‘clock out’ though, because I can get so many inspirational ideas from so many different people and places I go or work.

Marriage takes Work – Date your Spouse

Whether you work from home, are an entrepreneur, or work for someone else, we all need to work on our marriages too. It is difficult to keep giving energy, ideas, and encouragement to others if you are not being given to yourself also. So, one day I was thinking about how to use our own Wedding Time Capsule in a more creative way to give back to each other as husband and wife. The time capsule is a unique gift in of itself, so what is a different way to use it after it has been opened and you have reminisced over the memorabilia you have saved in it for the first year of your marriage?

What to do with your Wedding Time Capsule, when Opened

You already opened you own Wedding Time Capsule filled with your sentimental mementos, from your first year of marriage, honeymoon, and a few items before you got married. What a special day it was as you laughed and cried over your nostalgic items as you pulled them out of the time capsule. So now what? You can display the items in a shadow box in your home, you can leave them in the time capsule, or you could pass on some of your heirloom items to your children. If you want you can completely empty the wedding time capsule, and start over again collecting your favorite items of this time, to open at your next milestone anniversary date.

365 Ways to Say ‘I Love You’ or Ways to Date your Spouse

You could also, have friends and family members write down several date ideas on slips of paper, fold up the papers, and then place them in the time capsule. You will need 365 slips of blank paper, so you have one date idea per day of a year. Start pulling one date idea out of your wedding time capsule, each day to give you a creative way to connect and bond closer as a couple daily.

To help get you started on ideas, visit http://www.familylife.com/articles/topics/marriage/staying-married/husbands/20-ideas-for-dating-your-wife#.U_UCHfldVbE. You could also put 365 reasons why you love each other on the pieces of paper to pull out and read to each other every day of the year. To give you ideas for this, visit http://everydayloveexo.tumblr.com/365reasonswhyiloveyou.

What is a great date night idea, you would put in the time capsule? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie
www.timecapsule.com

The post How to Date Your Spouse appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.