Us and Our Story

Craig Alan Smith

Likes: adventure
Dislikes: cheese (that's not melted)
Favourite thing about Naomi: her conversations

Naomi Clare Bedford

Likes: cups of tea with friends and a good boogie  

Dislikes: late nights and early mornings

Favourite thing about Craig: his hugs

Our Story

How did a Lewegian guy end up with a Leicester gal? Well, it all began in London back in 2008 where the pair were attending the same church. Due to its rather large congregation size, the two were not well acquainted for quite some time (although Craig had admired Naomi's leadership on Student Weekends, and Naomi had several times clocked Craig's big beanie-adorned face and Timberland-clad stride). 

In the summer of 2010 by some happy coincidence, Naomi was among a group of students (too poor to afford accommodation in Brighton during a Brighton-based conference), who Craig had arranged to put up in one of the church buildings in Lewes. Clearly having taken quite a fancy to Naomi by this point, Craig managed to position himself in Naomi's passenger seat daily for each journey between Brighton and Lewes, despite the cohort of cars making the same journeys and choice of other seats. Over this week, Naomi slowly began to fall for Craig's bubbling personality and tales of adventure, but remained quiet, knowing that the following month, she was leaving London to live in the Netherlands - better not to complicate things.

November 2010 came around and Naomi, who up until this point been living across the sea in Leiden for 3 months, decided to extend the ultimate olive branch to Craig (who, despite the ocean between them had been frequently popping up in her thoughts) by commenting on his Facebook wall. Well, she must have been occurring in his thoughts too, because not only was his response fairly prompt, but he transferred the dialogue from the public realm of the Facebook Wall, into the intimate arena of Direct Messages! After asking her more questions than necessary about her time so far in Holland, to prove he was interested, he stated, "When you're back in London next, let's go for a drink" with forthrightness, which gave Naomi butterflies.

The Facebook messages went back and forth and when Christmas 2010 came around and the pair met at Euston station for a prearranged coffee date (most common among Christians exploring the possibility of striking up an exclusive, relationship). The Nero coffee whet their appetite for a rather long and wild evening, making stops to three different pubs and the Quakers Temple! Conversation flowed steadily and a mutual attraction began to bubble over. 

Naomi went back to Holland a week later, sorry to leave this lovely and intriguing guy behind, but excited to see him in February when he came over to Amsterdam with his student union. In the interim, the pair upgraded from their Facebook-only exchanges to include some (almost) genuine Skype encounters. With the stakes heightened and an increasing appreciation for Craig, Naomi thought it was time to lay her cards out on the table; lay her heart bare with a confession to liking Craig and demand an explanation of his own feelings...

He wrote back a lovely, long and very gushing message declaring he did indeed like Naomi too, but with several caveats; the first in a long line of vague, Craig bulletins, completely misleading and confusing for any girl, let alone one who was smitten. Naomi awaited his visit to Amsterdam with baited breath, convinced he would sweep her off her feet and declare them in an official relationship - but despite a fantastic 18 hours together of Belgian beer drinking, pancakes, steak, canal meandering, hot chocolate, chess and jazz, non such commitment was offered and Craig went back to London leaving Naomi a little deflated.

Not a fan of being in left the 'grey', Naomi sent a Facebook message demanding that Craig told her where she stood - i.e. would he take her to be his girlfriend or not - and obviously into Naomi, but seemingly not enough to be ready for commitment (a conundrum common to many a male), Craig bought some time, saying that this was a matter only to be spoken about face to face on her next visit. 

And so March came around. On this visit to London, Naomi was quite determined to get this relationship on the move or else quit the flirting, ditch the messaging and get on with her life without Craig's input, the way it had always been before. After a couple of hang-outs with Craig that week, Naomi felt he was being ever-ambiguous about his intentions towards her, and pre-warned him that their last meeting at St. Pancras before she got the Eurostar back to Holland, would be decision time. So over coffee, Craig bluntly and unambiguously said, "It's a no."

This harsh 'no' reality washed over Naomi like burning acid and she felt sickened by the thought that her own persistence had bought about this defining, negative and hurtful moment. She had made it quite clear, that if they weren't going to be a couple, then that would be the end of their exchanges and so it was. After many tears cried and a journey back under the Channel, Naomi left Craig behind and their interactions went quiet.

9 months went by. There were minor points of contact during this time, but for fear of dragging out this tale, they shall be passed over. Naomi had occasionally thought of Craig, sometimes with bitter resentment and sometimes with empty hope, but for the most part, she got on with her life and was loving Holland and loving single life. Craig had finished his degree and had, as he often does, been off enjoying an adventure - in Egypt.

In December 2010, Naomi came home from work one night to find a message from Craig, asking her if she would ever be willing to speak to him again. Unlikely story. She was still very hurt that Craig had been so abrupt at cutting off her hopes for them back in March, and that since, he had sporadically popped up on Facebook chat to casually ask after her with no sign of seriousness or apology. But curiosity got the better of her and she agreed to Skype him.

Craig, prattled on as if the pair were old school friends and no awkwardness stood between them. Naomi listened and took a minor part in the conversation - a very rare thing for her. At the end of the socially artless chat, Craig asked if he might come and see Naomi that Christmas, whilst she was home. Naomi wasn't sure about this, but told Craig she'd entertain the possibility and let him know - this time she was clueless - why on earth did he want to see her?

The day arrived, for Craig to sojourn from Lewes up to Leicester, where he still believes to be 'up North', despite Naomi's continual corrections, "Leicester is in the East Midlands". Naomi picked Craig up from the train station, rather nervous on clearly in defensive mode, with both her little sister and dog for back up. She beckoned Craig into the backseat of her car to accompany her hyperactive hound, not thinking to get out and greet Craig properly, who had traversed 4 hours to arrive at this point. As punishment for not taking her as his girlfriend 9 months earlier when she was ready, then proceeded to inflict a dog walk with her sister on the poor guy, offering cold answers to Craig's heart-felt questions about her well-being. Afterwards they went to Naomi's family home, which on this particular day became more like a fortress for her and Craig desperately tried to smooth over the tension with his genuine warmth and loveliness.

Not being able to break through Naomi's wall with her little sister sitting in the background, Craig suggested that they went out to the pub. They drove into Leicester, found a comfy sofa and with two drinks in hand, Craig finally came out with it, "So you're probably wondering why I've come here?". Well she certainly had - which was why she'd been acting so guarded - Naomi wasn't usually a harsh person, but her uncertainty had led to a rather foul mood, not knowing what Craig wanted after all this time.

What followed was a wonderful declaration of how despite Craig's 9 months-previous-"no", that he simply hadn't been able to get Naomi out of his mind since that moment; that although he'd been in Egypt for 3 months and up to all sorts of things thereafter, he kept coming back to thoughts about Naomi; that he had wanted to try and get his life sorted and a job lined up before he could ask a woman into it and that that being done, he had now come to the conclusion that he'd like to spend his life with her and was willing and ready to undertake a long distance relationship, and how did she feel?

Shocked and taken off guard, it was Naomi's turn to be abrupt. She told him that she felt he'd acted a bit of a dick over the months that had passed and that whilst she wasn't saying no to his proposal outright, she certainly couldn't say yes, having been spending her time trying to forget about Craig. She drove Craig back to the train station and sent him home, rather deflated, with the promise of getting back to him.

After 4 days of mulling things over, praying,consulting friends, and rekindling fond memories of Facebook and Skype moments gone by, Naomi decided she was up for taking a chance on Craig and she called him on New Year's Day 2012 to accept his offer. 

That then, is how and where it all began. Naomi and Craig have since been on an almost always happy roller coaster - starting off as long distance lovers, to later only have 5 minutes between them; they've traveled to USA and Brazil, and this summer got engaged in Holland. That however, is a story for another day, as is the story of their marriage to come.