Michael Wager and Violet Iles announce their engagement and upcoming marriage on August 6th in the St. George Temple.
Well, despite the fact that we don't have to get married to get on the blog, I'm doing it anyway.
I got back to Utah in July 2010, just in time to help my family move to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Not long after that, I returned to Southern Utah University to continue studying music there. I ended up living on campus in the same building that I lived in before my mission.
At the first Family Home Evening for or student ward, we went to the Bishop's house for a dinner. During the evening, the first counselor in the bishopric introduced me to Violet Iles, who had been in the ward the year before. Over the next few days, Violet and I started getting to know and like each other. We went on a date to the Utah Shakespearean Festival that Saturday. It wasn't too long after that that we decided to start dating each other exclusively. The more time we have spent together, the more we love each other and see how compatible we are. Everything we do we enjoy doing together, including reading, writing, going for walks, talking, and so on.
By January we started talking about marriage. We began coming up with ideas for our wedding, as well as how we would deal with things as parents and as a couple. As we started to discuss things more, our love continued to grow.
Although I had met her parents before we even started dating, Violet still hadn't met mine. At spring break, we went to Albuquerque together to stay with my family. On our six-month mark since we started dating, we told my parents about how we wanted to get married. I hadn't had a chance to do it up to that point because I wanted to tell them in person rather than over the phone. They were supportive and happy for us.
The next day, we went to the mall to look at rings. We didn't have any money, so we were mostly window shopping and seeing what we liked. There wasn't much in our price range that we liked, but after lunch, we made a decision. We decided there was no point in waiting to officially get engaged, since we had talked so much about it and my parents knew about it. Since we couldn't afford a nice ring, Violet picked out a plastic costume ring from Macy's (which actually looked very nice, and a lot of people thought it was real) to use until we had a little more money. I bought it and we took it home. After we got back to the house, we went on a walk to a nearby park, which we had visited a few times earlier in the week. We walked a little ways in the park. Then I stopped and got down on one knee and said, "Violet, will you marry me?" and slipped the ring onto her finger. She said yes.
We had originally thought of getting married in December, but we decided that was a rather long engagement, so we moved it up to August 6. We're getting married in the St. George Temple, which is both her favorite temple and the closest to where we are. We are so excited to be sealed together for time and all eternity.
This summer, we are both staying in Cedar City and working. We're taking a marriage preparation institute class, and we love each other more every day.
The Lord really has looked out for me and us. I know that the blessings I've received since I came home are because of my mission, and I'm grateful for the experiences I've had and continue to have. God loves us, and the Church is true.
Michael Wager
