Erika Elenik is a professionally known and accomplished writer and public speaker, best known for her professional work as a fitness instructor, life coach, and career counseling specialist. Ms. Elenik has been married and divorced several times and over the past 15 years she has dedicated herself to being a wife and mother both. Her marriage proposal to husband Tom was one of the most well received proposals that I have ever witnessed. This article is about the man she proposed to and the circumstances surrounding that proposal.
After our marriage proposal, my husband immediately asked me if I would be OK with him height difference since he was only 5′ 10″. I responded with “sure, no problem” only to be stunned by his response. He then went on to tell me that he had always felt that we were too much alike and that the height difference was not going to matter to me or to our children. I understood his point, but still could not help myself from thinking “What if I’m not that tall?” What if I am not this fair skinned, thin, tall, glasses-eyed girl that he thought I was? What if I am the woman who has traveled throughout time, been educated, faced adversity, made sacrifices for others and come out on the other side as an amazing, remarkable woman?
After a long time, Tom and I decided to get married so that we could raise a family. We chose to get married in Greece where both of us are Greek by heritage. We spent a lot of time researching how to plan our marriage proposal, what sort of gifts we should give our guests, and what sort of rings we should wear on our wedding day. On our wedding day, our friends and family all pitched in with many suggestions, some of which were a lot more significant than the height difference issue that had bothered me and irritated me so much prior to our marriage proposal.