The Forsythes’ love defies all odds
Published:Sunday | May 17, 2020 | 12:13 AM
Tamara Bailey
Sunday Gleaner Writer
Imagine planning a grand wedding that forms the perfect replica of dreams of your big day, having your honeymoon getaway booked, having the man/woman of your dreams by your side, and envisioning everything flowing as you intended it.
Then, imagine being told that you will no longer have what your plans outlined, that you can only have 10 persons present, and that your honeymoon will be postponed indefinitely.
This could easily be one of life’s most daunting experiences, but not for Andrew and Monique Forsythe, who could not wait to make their love official, even in the midst of a pandemic.
For approximately 11 years, the two have solidified their friendship, and they will now spend the next decades solidifying their love and building a strong family unit.
“We met through a friend in high school. It started out as a casual friendship – we would have short conversations when we saw each other at school or at church events – until it blossomed. We started spending hours on the phone together, making deliberate efforts to visit each other’s church, and attending church functions so that we could spend time together. When he asked me to be his girlfriend, I came up with all the excuses why it would not work, until about a year later on May 18, 2010, I finally said yes,” said Monique.
The two, who started university together, had always been planning for the future and agreed that they would both finish school, get employed, and then get married.
Though they both picked out the engagement ring, no one quite knew when the proposal would happen.
“We were together nine years before we got engaged. Monique is not easily surprised, so it was difficult to plan a surprise proposal. She is an extraordinary woman, so she didn’t really want the ordinary restaurant/eating establishment engagement. But she still wanted her close family and friends to be present. So in planning the proposal, I had to take all of this in mind. And because she was not easily surprised, getting our close friends and family in one place at one specific time, without raising suspicion, would have been a challenge.”
It was then that Andrew decided to ask his best friend to marry him on the day of her graduation.
“Although the details of the proposal would have been a surprise to me, we knew it was going to happen, so we picked out the ring together months in advance. In the days leading up to my graduation, I could feel him trying to hide something from me. I had an idea what it was, but in an effort not to ruin the surprise, I said nothing. On the day of my graduation, I remember feeling nervous, not because I was going to walk across the stage but because I had that gut feeling that ‘today is the day’. After the ceremony, during what was disguised as a photo shoot, he started expressing his love for me, went down on one knee, and asked me to marry him,” Monique said with a smile.
Monique said that nothing could have prepared her for the feeling that overwhelmed her as she screamed ‘yes’ through her sobs.
Eight months later, the two tied the knot, and though the plans for their wedding changed drastically, the act of becoming one was magical for them.
SIGNIFICANT DATE
“COVID-19 changed many things for our wedding. Initially, we were planning our wedding for May 17, 2020, a date that was significant to us as it would have been the day before our 10th anniversary being together. We thought that would have been the perfect date for our wedding anniversary. With all that was happening and the restrictions that were being put in place by the Government to limit the spread of the virus, we knew things would not go according to plan,” Monique told The Sunday Gleaner.
The longer they waited, the more they had to cut the guest list. Getting married at the registrar’s office was not an option and postponement was not going to work, so the wedding had to happen.
“The only thing that was missing from the day was the physical presence of our relatives and friends – a problem we remedied by having them join us via live stream. We did not have the wedding we were planning, but the one we had turned out even better than our plans. We had the perfect wedding experience and are still looking forward to our honeymoon getaway when this is all over.”
Andrew added, “We basically had our entire wedding fully planned out almost one full year in advance. All of this advanced planning was done so as to not have us doing any last-minute planning. But within the space of two weeks, everything changed. Nevertheless, I was happy that we stuck together, never got flustered, and made the most of what we had to work with. Some people would say they did not have their dream wedding, but we made April 5, 2020, our dream wedding – the wedding of the century!”
The Forsythes are now looking forward to watching their love blossom, growing together daily with Christ at the centre of their union, and adding some mini Forsythes to the mix as soon as possible.