FEBRUARY 25th, 2017
Wedding Reception
Met
The story of Marilyn and Maxwell began in 2013. The stars aligned for both at them at the Armory Annex theatre when they saw Twist Your Dickens December 19th. Max happened to be behind Marilyn getting to his seat. Max tripped and pushed Marilyn, which she turned around and roll her eyes at him. Then they took their seats right next to each other.
“Oh great,” said Marilyn.
Max tried talking to Marilyn during the show and she was not having it. But after the show Max asked Marilyn out for a drink and she agreed.
Couple of days later Max asked Marilyn to go to “the beach house.” He asked me if I have ever gone clam-digging. I thought to myself “who does that.” So I agreed since I enjoy the sandy beach. An hour and half car ride later we shared our playlist. We had lots of 90s music in common so the hour went by fast. When we arrived, he informed me that his mom, step dad, grandpa, and his sister were going to be there. To my surprise. “Surprise, oh great” I thought. I had an amazing experience and learned a lot about Max. We went to a bead store and he asked me to pick out beads to treasure. Max made a bracelet to take home with these lovely beads.
Seeing Marilyn interacting with my family and making a basket with my grandpa brought me closer to her.
Meeting Family
Max and Marilyn started to travel and take new adventures together. Who doesn’t want to go to Hawaii, right? Max asked Marilyn to go to Hawaii with him. He didn’t mention that he had lived in Hawaii for the last 5 years.
I was going to Hawaii to meet his past which I was not happy about at all. I thought it was too soon to meet his past.. but again I kinda overcame that obstacle and met his Aunt Karen, and Uncle Victor. What a blessing to have meet more of his family. I was able to ask Karen many questions about “dating a Shawe.” In other words what it’s referenced to as “its a Shawe thing.*”
*The Shawe boys are very blunt and say what they think without considering other peoples feelings.
Hawaii
Max lived in Stevenson Washington with his grandfather and Marilyn lived downtown Portland. They both traveled to see each other every day they had off. Max was paying for parking almost every day that the decision to moving in together seem to be the next step. I struggled with leaving my downtown apartment since it was such a good deal and a big risk to move into the yellow house with Max, my boyfriend at the time. Do you know how hard it is to get an studio downtown portland?
Jax, Puppy
Mexico Trip
More adventures... We have been able to travel to Hawaii; Spend the night in Seattle, visit museums in Washington D.C, Airbnb in the forest, etc.
We have learned a lot from each other. Marilyn encourages Max to go do runs, hikes, and even go to rock concerts. Max has inspired Marilyn to pick up tools, use machinery like snowmobiles, go to car shows, Pick-in Pull, and the list goes on and on.
Meeting Marilyn's extended family in Mexico, Nayarit and traveling to Puerto Vallarta. Max had the opportunity to see and experience how it's like to live in Mexico. The fresh fruits, buying water every day, the limited electricity, etc. I like to tell people about the heroic person on our vacation trip in Puerto Vallarta. Max and I were scuba diving and with the peer pressure of the crew to jump and experience the underwater. An older man jumped and had a heart attack... Max was able to assist the older man with CPR and inform the boat crew about the older man's status since they did not have any sort of first aid kit. Yay, the crew was lucky Max was on board. Every day it's an adventure with Max & Jax.
Marilyn begged and begged for a little white Westie. Max wanted a medium size dog that would be more active. Marilyn saw an ad that had quarter Westies/Jack Russell terrier mix. After several phone calls a lady answered and said, “we only have one puppy left that has more of a Jack Russel look.” We are only going to SEE the puppy, we are not taking the puppy since it’s not what I want. Ok, Max.” 5 mins later. Max we have to keep her! She's so adorable. Look at her, can we keep her, please!!! We fell in love, and that was the easy part. Staying up all night, calming her down, potty training, and figuring her out as she grew was so much work. My dog turned into OUR dog, our little one, our human-dog.
Engaged
Filed
We traveled to Napels, Pompeii, Sorrento, and trained it to Florence, Italy, then headed out to Barcelona, Spain. We had an amazing time and wouldn't change one bit of it (ok, maybe not so much Napels), but everything else was beautiful! Love you Max for being adventurous and allowing me to share my knowledge of art.
We had our wedding ceremony December 6th 2016 in Florence, Italy.
Marilyn and Maxwell filed for a marriage license, September 19th 2017, and before filling paperwork to Multnomah County Office in Portland, Oregon they stopped by to ThoughtCrime Tattoo to bond their love with symbolic ring tattoos.
We had 2 of our close friends (to be our witness) and Max's childhood friend (to be our officiant) to sign paperwork before we headed to the tattoo parlor. It was intimate moment for the two of us.
After two years of adventures and memories, Maxwell got down on one knee with the help of Jax, their white terrier dog, to ask Marilyn during their road trip to Washington Olympic Peninsula. "Prior to this I ordered her engagement ring from Tel Aviv, Israel. It took three months to arrive and I happened to be at work. Marilyn immediately called me and said 'what is in this package?' I was on the North Slope of Alaska, 'oh, nothing just throw it in the closet' Needless to say I had a moment of unease! The setting on the beach was wonderful, although it was getting late, I was not nervous or apprehensive. She had a huge smile on her face with made it concrete in my mind, I love her."
