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Did you ever have a day in your life when you couldn’t believe what was happening?  A day when you seriously thought you were an actor in an awesome movie?  Yeah, me either.  Until this past Sunday that is.

As many of you longtime readers know I am borderline unhealthily obsessed with playing roller derby for the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls (http://www.rockymountainrollergirls.com).  I’ve actually been playing derby for them longer than I have owned my business.  When I started I didn’t have any expectations about where it would take me and what would happen with the derby.  But, it infiltrated my life and I can honestly say that it changed me for the better and I wouldn’t be where I am today without having been a part of this wonderful league.  It is so captivating that even some of my former brides have been intrigued and came out to play themselves. 

Little back-story, I began skating with the league when I was just a wee 22 year old finishing up my last semester of art school as a photo major at Metro State.  Shortly after I started skating I met my boyfriend (later dubbed Da Jewce) and eventually roped him into becoming an announcer for the league and he’s been my derby sidekick & best friend ever since.  Rocky Mountain had some wins and a hell of a lot of losses and we just kept skating our butts off, turning left, and having the time of our lives.

Fast-forward about 6 years.  2009 and 2010 saw some exponential growth in our A squad’s roster & skill.  We gained some very talented transfers and really started to gel as a team.  We managed to beat the Oly Rollers based out of Olympia, WA at the Western Regional Tournament in Sacramento last month.  It was a big deal because we broke their 22 game winning streak and were the first team to beat them since they burst onto the scene and began to steal the show with their phenomenal speed skating style in 2008.  The 1st place win in the western region felt really good and we moved on to play at the Championship tournament in Chicago where we were prepared to give it our all and try to make a run for #1 in the world.  (Yes, I said world.  Roller Derby is now international!)

We managed to beat the best skaters from Baltimore and then took on the Gotham Girls from New York City who have undoubtedly been at the top of the heap since the very beginning.  Which meant that the derby world would be seeing another match-up between Rocky Mountain from Denver, CO and the Oly Rollers from Olympia, WA.  I know that I am biased when I say that this was the BEST GAME OF ROLLER DERBY EVER PLAYED.  But that doesn’t make it any less true.  Ask any derby fan.  They make movies about teams who are down in the very last seconds of the game and somehow manage to squeak out a 1 point win.  It’s a cliche!  But that’s exactly what happened in Chicago and I am so incredibly proud to have been a part of the team and league that made it a reality. 

As if that wasn’t incredible enough, after the top 3 teams from the tournament had been introduced and applauded and after all of the crying had finally stopped and we had some dry eyes in the arena, Jewce called me out by my real name.  My heart stopped when he got down on one knee in front of 3,000 people at the UIC pavilion and about 3,000 other people watching live at home and asked me to marry him.  Later I heard stories about how he made grown men weep. 

It’s about time:)  The wedding photographer finally gets to plan her own wedding!

I found the footage of the game plus the proposal here:

The big moment!  Jewce told everyone on the mike that I said “Probably.” Haha Thank you to Jason Ernst for getting this shot of us:) http://www.wildharedesigns.com/gallery2/main.php

“Probably”

Our very first photo together as an engaged couple:) Thank you Jay Vollmar! www.JayVollmar.com