Guest Post with Erin @ Like Want Need

Today is my six year anniversary! Today marks the middle of an extremely busy week for me seeing family that has arrived and finalizing wedding details with my two wedding coordinators/event producers. I am excited to have Erin from Like Want Need here to take over while I enjoy dinner reservations  with my beau and a bottle of Veuve Cliquot that we've been saving for a special occasion. Erin shares my love of all things French and delights me with her blog posts about her inner French girl. If I had a spirit animal, it would be Erin's inner French girl. Enough of that, I said I was going to bring you love stories and Erin is here to start us off this week with how she met her own beau. 


Hey guys! I'm Erin from like / want / need, and I'm flattered to be filling in for the lovely Yelle while she's making last minute preparations for her upcoming nuptials. I adore her blog, and was so touched she's letting me 'babysit' for the day! What better way to celebrate her wedding than to share the love, and today I'm going to share my own love story. I'm currently engaged to a fantastic guy named Jeff, who I mostly call by his initials, JML, and to whom I've bestowed the ridiculous nickname JAMAL. Before that he was Boyfriend. And before that, he was my boss. Kind of. Scandalous, I know.

I wish I could say our love story had epic beginnings, but the truth is we met at work. On my very first day at my first Real Job after college (one I spent a year searching for, only to end up in the entirely glamorous role as an administrative assistant), I was being walked around and introduced to everyone in the office when I first laid eyes on him. It was one of those moments people talk about in cheesy terminology: the clouds parted, sun shone down, the angels sang. He stood up from behind his desk to shake my hand and I knew in that instant I was done for. I called my best friend that night and said, "I just met the man I'm going to marry."

(I'll spoil the ending for all of you: I was totally right.)

It would be another month before I worked up the nerve to even talk to him. He'd pass my desk on the way to the kitchen and smile and say hello, and the moment he was out of sight I'd bury my face in a stack of papers on my desk and hyperventilate. He was just so cute, too cute for my productivity. I knew he was at least seven or eight years older, and I figured a successful, handsome guy in the city likely had a hot girlfriend or fiancée already. When I found out a few months in he was single (through some very obvious lines of questioning of my coworkers, though I tried to be casual about it), I would pass the time I spent filing imagining scenarios in which we were serendipitously put on travel together and shared some passionate rendezvous in a foreign city, or that in a few months I'd drunkenly seduce him at the office Christmas party. Who cares if I got fired!

I didn't have to go to such extremes, fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how much you like romance novels), because this great guy I'd swooned over since my first day ended up liking me back, in what I'm considering the universe's way of saying "I owe you one!" from all the heartbreak that had come before him. We had our first date on July 4th. We watched old episodes of The Office and had full intentions of watching the fireworks, too, but were too busy making out (:blush:). We saw each other the next day for dinner. And the day after that. We were together immediately, easily, and we always would be.

We kept our little romance a secret from our co-workers for two months, maintaining a polite and professional distance at work, and spending every waking minute with each other outside of the office. When we finally spilled the beans at a company happy hour, someone jumped out of their seat and yelled "I KNEW IT!" Apparently, neither of us are convincing liars.

It's been almost three years, I've changed jobs, we've moved in together, adopted a maniac of a dog, got engaged in Paris, and I love Jeff more every day. He's without a doubt the kindest, most supportive person I've ever known, and the best part is, he likes me. Against all reason, and even when I'm grumpy or un-showered or whining about how much I miss Paris. He's adorable, he's smart, does a great Gordon Ramsey impression, and he thinks I'm pretty neat. I like to think I've helped him relax a bit, and in turn, he's provided a healthy dose of realism to my head-in-the-clouds ways. We both really love fondue, reading the paper in bed on Sundays, prefer vanilla over chocolate, and while we'll never agree on packing up and spontaneously moving to France for a year, I can't imagine spending my life with anyone else.

Thank you for letting me gush for a bit, Yelle! Can't wait to see and hear all about your wedding day. xo