Sep 11, 2023 - Written by Faye
Tender Trifles of Love
Hi there, this is Faye, Callum's Faye.
Thank you for visiting this page and reading about our love stories. When I'm writing this, it's been almost 9 months since we met each other and we're about to get married in 82 days! How exciting!!
And all the stories started from Dec 18th, 2022 when we first met each other at Hyde Park Chapel. Callum's closing prayer touched my heart. By coincidence we bumped into each other after the sacrament. And we ended up watching World Cup final at our 'Britannia parents' - the Bush's house.
At the end of the day, I sent Callum the first message and invited him to our New Year's Eve dancing party. And Callum asked me for our first date before the party. So if you asked who took the initiative at the beginning, I can say we're neck and neck.
On December 29th 2022, we went on our first date in soho, watching Les Misérables musical and having dim sum for dinner. The date started from early afternoon and we spent time together until late night because neither of us wanted to end today so early.
I had a rather good impression on Callum so I was expecting that we could hold hands at some point but we were too shy to do so. When it was time to say goodbye, we hugged and looked into each other's eyes saying it was lovely to hang out today. And I know that was the moment when love started to bud.
And two days later, Callum attended the New Year's Eve dance at our Hyde Park chapel as promised. And finally we held each other's hands when dancing. It's not because we wanted to dance but we wanted to hold hands.
One hour before the new year started, we were separated when everyone tried to find the good spot to see the New Year's fireworks. When I realised I was feeling so sad that I couldn't be with Callum in this special moment, I know I was in love.
01 JAN 2023 00:00
The boy with whom I wanted to watch the New Year's fireworks is now going to experience the seasons change and watch the sunrise and sunset with me.
I am so grateful that we both made our first step to get closer to each other. We're different and somehow similar. I'm a person who is full of passion and imagination but always lack patience for the process and go all in to achieve results. While Callum is gentle and firm as a glass of tranquil water - he loves his family and friends and he is positive and patient with everything but sometimes his patience might drive me crazy. Regardless of the difference between us, we find that we are able to make a good balance because we can always reach a compromise when we look at things in different ways,
-
I like taking photos but Callum doesn't, so he learned to take photos of me.
-
I always clean up before we eat but Callum prefers to do it later, so now we put them in the dishwasher and wash them later.
-
I enjoy dressing up myself but Callum is more spontaneous, so when we go to church, he matches the colour of his tie with my dress.
I always say being with Callum is like an adventure. It is indeed.
Callum likes randomly coming up with crazy ideas and I'm the person who will make things happen with all efforts as long as I say that. So our personalities and lifestyle have brought so much surprise and fun to our life since we were together.
We love travelling, so we went to Cyprus with friends but stayed in Cyprus a bit longer because Callum lost his passport at the airport...
We love camping, so we camped in New Forest, in Wales and in Guilford and experienced driving with a flat tire and failure to make the campfire.
We love the temple, so we have been to London England Temple for around 10 times, done endowment for over 5 times and recently went to visit Preston Temple and stayed there overnight.
We love our family, so we took my parents, who came over from China, to visit Callum's uni in July and we drove to Scotland for 7 hours to meet Callum's grandparents in September.
As I said, Callum has so many wild ideas and I would have never expected he would propose to me in that way.
It was a normal summer night and I came to Staines around midnight after work because we were planning to do parkrun together in Richmond park the other day. I was wearing my a normal T-shirt, with my glasses on and greasy hair without washing. And I didn't know what was happening soon.
'Shall we find some place to be just two of us for a while before we go home?' asked Callum. It was an all-too-normal question so I agreed. And Callum found a 'random' park (he later told me he had searched for the best place for 2 hours), we parked there and went out for a walk. In the pitch-black park, only the dim streetlights vaguely illuminated the road ahead. And Callum seemed to be nervous and I just thought he wanted to cuddle but there were a group of strangers around, so I didn't suspect a thing until he led me to a streetlight and all of a sudden he picked out a ring box under the fence and knelt down on one knee!
At the same time, there was a flashlight coming out of the bushes and shining straight at us. We were both a little at a loss for word for a split second. And finally Callum asked 'Will you marry me?' which I'd been waiting for months. After nodding like crazy, I said YES and we embraced each other. I felt like I had the entire world in my arms.
After taking a break from the bliss, I realised that behind that flashlight was our friend Jose who had waited in the bushes for so long that the police asked him if he was okay before we arrived as he waited for us clutching a bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolate.
"And Adam said: This was bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; now she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man;
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh."
—— Abraham 5: 17-18
Now we are going together from here to eternity. We're so grateful that we put God in the centre of our relationship and helped each other become a better person through our Savior. The gospels help us to see the importance of family and love, and now we are both excited to organise a family where gospel principles can be taught and God's love can be shared.