This is not your typical Cinderella story however; it is my Cinderella story…..
I grew up in a loving home with my birth parents and although I had two sisters, they were not evil step sisters. Like any other girl I dreamed of finding my prince charming, having a fairy tale wedding, dancing all night and riding away in a horse drawn carriage with my Prince. As magical and wonderful as that all sounds, it was not at all how things happened for me in real life. In fact one of the only things my story has in common with Cinderella’s famous fairytale is that I did find my Prince charming, which is what really matters after all.
I didn’t have a fairytale wedding; in fact my wedding happened fast and unexpectedly. At the time my boyfriend, Eric, was in Georgia attending Officer Candidate School (OCS) for the U.S. Army. I received a phone call from him one day, telling me that he was driving home to Arizona for a short visit and could only stay a few days. When he arrived home he asked me to marry him right away and the very next day we went to the court house to get married (April 7, 2008). Unfortunately, my parents were in another state and my big sister, who works as a hair stylist, could not get the time off work on such short notice (at least I got to see her at work that day and she styled my hair for the wedding). My wedding party list was very short; it included my younger sister, my best friend Alisa and my friend Courtney. My husband had his best friend with him. I didn’t even have time to shop for a proper wedding dress, so I wore a simple black pencil skirt and cream colored blouse. We celebrated our nuptials over dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Of course, there was no time for a honey moon and a few days later Eric was back in Georgia finishing his Officer training.
Two months later, when my husband was finally finished with OCS, I drove to Georgia to live with him for the last part of his Army schooling. We lived in GA for about three months together and then he was sent away for a month of continuous field work. I came back home to Arizona to visit family while he completed his field training.
After his training Eric received his first duty assignment in Germany, where he was stationed for three years. We moved to Germany together and we were in Germany for about two months before he was sent on a month long assignment to Kosovo. My daughter and I were so lonely there in Germany without him, it seemed like he was gone forever. After he returned we had three months of blissful togetherness before we found out that soon he was going to have to deploy to Afghanistan for a little over a year! I couldn’t stand that thought of living in Germany without him for that long. During that time my husband’s grandfather passed away and we had to fly to North Carolina for the funeral. While we were in the U.S. we decided that since Eric was deploying to Afghanistan and I did not want to live in Germany without him, my daughter and I would fly home to Arizona to be near my family and we would live there while he went to Afghanistan.
So Eric flew back to Germany alone and my daughter and I went to Arizona. We found out a few weeks later that his deployment date had been pushed back a few months. By this time I had already secured a new job, so we made the decision that I wouldn’t move back to Germany while he waited those few extra months for deployment. Well, a few months went by and his deployment date was yet again postponed, so we were apart even longer. Finally, after eight months, he was able to fly home for Christmas and we got to spend two whole weeks together!
After Christmas he flew back to Germany and we were apart for another four months before his deployment finally happened in May. Just before he went to Afghanistan he was able to fly home to see us for two weeks in April. Nine more long months went by while he was deployed to Afghanistan before he was able to come home in mid-January to visit us. He was supposed to return to Afghanistan to complete his one year tour, but they let his unit return early and he went back to Germany to finish the last of his three year assignment there.
Three months later, in May, he had accumulated enough leave time to fly home to visit us again and celebrate our daughters 4th birthday. He only had 10 days of leave with us before he had to go back to Germany. Eric is currently living in Germany and will FINALLY be returning home to us in October, after another five month separation. This time we will be moving to Georgia TOGETHER for his next assignment and we’ll have at least six months there while he attends another Army training school. So, as you can see, out of our first 42 months of marriage, we have only spent a grand total of NINE months together and the other thirty-three months we were apart.
Not your typically fairytale, I know. Though Cinderella and I endured different trials and tribulations in our life, our goal was the same; to find true and everlasting love and live ‘Happily Ever After’ with our Prince Charming. Both Cinderella and I dealt with many obstacles standing in the way of being together with our prince charming. To me, the Cinderella story is about so much more than just having a fairytale wedding with all the glitz and glam. The Cinderella story is about finding true love, a genuine love that will stand the test of time. It is rare in the world todays to find true everlasting love where both partners are completely loyal and faithful to one another. I feel so blessed to have Eric as my partner and I have no doubt in my mind that we will spend eternity loving each other and the beautiful family we have created together. Now that, my friends, is the best fairytale ending I could ever ask for.
Since Eric was away so much of our early married life, I’ve had to miss out on several Military balls, but once he returns home we’ll finally be able to attend these formal events together. I’m so excited to finally enjoy dancing with my prince charming, even if it’s not at our wedding. In the anticipation of this I have been collecting vintage ball gowns when I come across them. My most recent and most exciting find was a beautiful, classy and elegant champagne color ball gown. I chose to wear this gown from my collection because, to me, it represents the type of ballroom dress that I think a modern day Cinderella would wear. It is all things that Cinderella’s classic dress had: style, elegance, beauty, class and simplicity. For my jewelry I choose to wear beautiful pieces that were fashioned out of glass, inspired by Cinderella’s glass slippers. For my hair style I selected an elegant French twist up-do with lots of curls at the top. I also added butterfly pieces in my hair, which were inspired by Christian Louboutin’s Cinderella Slippers. For my nails, i painted them a similar color to my dress and added lace detailing across the tips in inspiration from Christian Louboutin’s lace detailing on his version of Cinderella’s slippers. Lastly, as you may notice from the photos I am barefoot because I am awaiting my perfect Christian Louboutin’s slippers. Hopefully my feet wont stay bare long!!
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The Outfit does not have to be comprised of anything you do not already own: Remember, chic style is not necessarily expensive! No purchase of any clothes or accessories is necessary to enter. The Photo and Blog Post are collectively known as “Entry(ies)” or “Entry Materials” and the person uploading the Entry will be deemed the entrant (“Entrant”). Limit of one (1) Entry per person. Entries using different email addresses for a single individual will be disqualified.
