So today I am going to get a little personal on the blog. About 3 weeks ago something amazing happened, I got engaged! I won’t be sharing anything crafty or yummy in this post I just thought for all the people who want to know how it happened and even for myself I want to have a place where I can come back and read about the proposal. I also love the idea that I can refer people here when they ask, “How’d he do it?” Not that I don’t love telling the story over and over!
To begin, let’s back track on our love story. You might want to grab a drink, this is going to be a long post!
I met Frank about 10 years ago when I worked at Starbucks. He came in as a customer. He worked at the bank 2 stores down so he was a frequent shopper. I remember the first time I saw him my best friend Angelica was all, “Hey, check that guy out.” My first reaction to him was, “What’s with the pork chop side burns?” We quickly became very friendly, I would go over to the bank whenever I had a break and hang out with all the people that worked there. I remember immediately feeling a connection with him. It wasn’t anything I could really describe I just felt incredibly comfortable around him and could talk to him about anything. He was pretty much to me the perfect guy. One problem though, he was in a relationship. And not a “Oh we’ve been dating for a little while,” but a long term, “We’re buying a house together,” kinda relationship. I mean really? Just my luck right? I would be the one to find the right guy at the most wrong time! I remember wanting to ask him countless times if he was sure he was making the right decision but it was not my place. We had talked about the movie Serendipity once, a movie about 2 people who meet and are in relationships and 10 years later find each other once again (how ironic!) and in a Serendipitous move, on my last day at Starbucks, as a gesture I handed him a cashmere glove. (If you’ve never seen the movie you can watch the scene here) I told him that I would have the other glove if things were to ever change. I remember like it was yesterday feeling completely defeated that day. Like how can this guy who is so right be so wrong. It wasn’t fair. But I also had this sense that somehow in some form he would remain in my life because there was just something about him that I was drawn to. The best way to describe it was that to me he felt like family.
We would exchange emails every now and then after I left but then life went on although he was always in the back of my mind.
Fast forward 10 years. I ran into him in Target and just like those friends where you can pick up right where you left off that’s what it was like. We started yapping away and he told me that things with his then girlfriend weren’t really working out. I left knowing that I was not going to let this man get away from me! Some time had passed and then I reached out to him. Sure enough, his relationship was ending. We began spending a lot of time together and then made it official and it was right. I felt like I was finally home.
***
As a couple who want to share their lives together you talk about one day getting married. We certainly had that conversation. We even discussed engagement rings and certain styles that were appealing. To say that being proposed to was a complete shock is a lie. I knew it would happen I just didn’t know when. Back in March we had looked at some pictures of rings and he began to ask me a lot of questions about bands and cuts. I was under the impression that a ring was being purchased. He had told me that he wanted to design the ring himself, he wanted it to be one of a kind. Months passed. Nothing.
I had totally convinced myself that it would happen before the end of the school year but that time had come and gone. For awhile I was ok with it. It’ll happen when it happens. Then on Thursday June 25th I reached my breaking point. I called Ang (Angelica) and was all…you have to call him! You have to find out whats going on, why is this taking so long? What is he waiting for!? I was an emotional wreck. I don’t know why I just felt like something needed to happen already and the last thing I would ever do was say something to him in case there was some plan. I didn’t want to wreck it.
Thursday, June 25, 2015
I was suppose to go to Saratoga that weekend but I ended up staying behind because we had a graduation party to go to on Sunday. Since I was no longer going to Saratoga I realized that I could attend a birthday party for my friends daughter. So I sent Frank a text…
What?! Brunch. We’ve never done brunch. I was skeptical. He then called me and proceeded to tell me that he made reservations for 10:30am on Sunday because one of the guys he works with said they have a great brunch menu. A million questions ran through my head. Brunch? He made reservations? He’s never just made reservations without talking to me first. It’s happening!! Then he said, “I can cancel the reservations if you want to go to the party?” Hmph…who would just offer to cancel reservations especially if they had let’s say a proposal planned? My excitement dwindled down. Then, to make matters worse, he came home and said, “So I’m totally rethinking this whole brunch thing. Apparently it’s a really nice place and you have to get dressed up and I don’t want to have to get dressed up to go to brunch.” At this point, I knew he didn’t have anything planned. Here’s the text I had sent to Ang after telling her about the whole brunch story.
Friday June 26, 2015
It was a pretty relaxing day. We did a few things around the house, ran some errands and had plans to go to the mall since I had a few things I needed to return. The trip to the mall seemed to slowly slip by since we were being super lazy and before we knew it it was dinner time and we were starving. We went back and fourth on where to go to eat but decided to stay local and went to Peppinos in town. During dinner he had reminded me that the next day would be one year since our first date (We had been together for months before we actually had an official first date.) I mean c’mon, it’s just screaming to be the perfect weekend to get engaged! After dinner he wanted to go for a walk through town. I’m not going to lie, I got some butterflies at this point. We started walking and he said let’s go sit on those benches. We sat down aaaannnd nothing. We just sat there. I grabbed my phone and text Ang. (Please excuse the explicit content, I was clearly not having it lol)
So while I’m going back and fourth with Ang he’s sitting next to me posting this photo:
Ang comments on the photo and little do I know but he then decides at this moment to send her a text.
Looking back at it I don’t ever remember him being on the phone yet he carried on this whole conversation. We finally walked to the car and drove to the next town. He decided he wanted to get a cup of coffee and since I was driving, told me to stop at Starbucks…you know the Starbucks were I worked years ago. Yup, the same Starbucks where we first met. I text Ang…
When we got in the car he apparently sent this text to her:
At this point we ended up at a bowling alley and having a fun night. I gave up on the whole ring thing. I was pretty miserable and decided to just let it go and enjoy myself. We ended up having a really great time and then called it a night.
Saturday, June 27, 2015
I had a busy day on Saturday. I was doing hair and makeup from 10am to about 4pm so I was gone all day. Frank on the other hand was a busy bee. He was running around town picking up trays of food which he kept in the fridge in our garage, which we just got so no shot of me looking in there. He also went to Party City and picked up balloons and did a dry run of his planned proposal. When I got home he informed me that he made reservations at the restaurant where we had our first date for 7:30. Perfect, enough time to take a nap. I remember hearing him come home and he looked in the living room where I was laying and he was on the phone with his mom. I kept my eyes close to see if he would drop any hint, thinking I’m sleeping but it was a normal conversation. I was so exhausted, I got up, got dressed, and off to dinner we went. I didn’t have any type of engagement idea on my mind. To me it was just dinner, some drinks
and a few episodes of Ray Donovan at home and I was content with that.
Sunday June 28, 2015
Our brunch reservation was for 10:30 so we got up pretty early to get ready. It was drizzling outside a little when we left but nothing too bad. As we made our way to the restaurant we were driving through the town of Bedford. We drove past my favorite tree as well. I said hello to the tree like I always do because I’m a weirdo. I have a slight love for this tree. It’s called the Bedford Oak and it’s over 500 years old. It’s massive and so incredibly beautiful and I always talk about how much I love it and that when I get married I want to take pictures under that tree. Anyway, we got to the restaurant, sat, and had some mimosas and ate a delicious meal. I didn’t think anything of the day. For a second I let the idea pass my mind that maybe it would happen but he was as cool as a cucumber and I thought if it were happening he would seem so nervous but that wasn’t the case at all! I knew that at some point I was going to my friend’s daughters party and then later that day we had a graduation party. Since we were so close to my friends house I figured we would just go straight there after brunch. Frank had different plans, “We need to go home first, I have to change. I also really have to go to the bathroom.” Great.
What I didn’t know at this point was he had the ring on him. He had all intentions of leaving it in the car but when we pulled up it was valet and there was no way he would have left it so he put it in his pocket of his pretty slender fitting sear suckers and sat the whole time with it, in the box. Poor guy. I had no clue.
When we got up to leave he walked behind me and managed to keep a good distance. The restaurant is surrounded by a beautiful garden but the valet pulled up with our car. All hopes I had of an engagement in the garden went out the window. We were just heading home. I was on my phone posting a picture of our mimosas and sharing about what a fat weekend we had. Regardless that what I thought would happen didn’t, it was a great weekend and we ate really well.
As we were driving by the Bedford golf course he said, “Wouldn’t it be cool to take a picture in front of the 18th hole?” I commented saying that first we’d have to jump the fence and sneak onto the property and then we”d have to find the 18th hole. A conversation of where the 18th hole could be found then began. Then he said, “We should take a picture in front of the oak tree.” UMMM YES PLEASE!! I was so excited when he said that. I have always wanted to take a picture in front of that tree! Do you think for a second I thought anything was up? Nope. I love to take pictures and he knows this. It’s not unusual for him to see something and say hey let’s take a picture with that. We once stopped when we saw a John Doe tractor in a huge field unattended to take a picture on it so this was not at all unexpected to me. I was so excited to take a picture in front of this glorious thing that I didn’t stop for even a second to think that something could be up. Just to give you an idea and so you don’t think I’m crazy here is what the tree looks like. I mean c’mon, it’s stunning! (Not my photo)
He pulled the car over and we got out. Now the trunk of this tree is like 30 feet wide so I suggested we go around the back of it so people from the street couldn’t see us. He agreed. When we turned the corner of the tree I looked down and there, on the ground, was a box, about 5×7, leaning against the tree with my name on it and “Please Open Me.”
I will forever remember the feeling that rushed through me when I saw that box. We weren’t there to take a picture. That box had my name on it. It was for me and he had put it there. I didn’t know what was in it or what exactly was going to happen but the feeling I had brought streams of tears to my eyes. He told me to open it so I grabbed it and proceeded to unwrap the brown paper with pink hearts. He took the paper and I held onto a white box with a lid, I lifted the lid and undid the tissue paper inside. What I found inside brought a flood of emotions. There, inside the box, there it was, the black cashmere glove I had given to him 10 years ago. He told me how he had held onto the glove all these years because he always knew that he would give it back to me one day. He got down on his knee and asked me to marry him, to spend the rest of my life with him. I was in such shock of it all, tears falling. I still hadn’t answered him. Poor guy on his knee just waiting for me to say it, “YES! Of course I will marry you!” It was beyond perfect.
He told me he had another surprise. He turned towards the road and I figured someone was coming but I had no idea who it could be. And then my little brother pulled up in his car. I totally lost it. He asked him to be there. It was perfect. We took photos by the tree and then headed home. When we got back there were balloons hanging from the mailbox (the ones he picked up on Saturday and clearly hid from me) and as he pulled down the driveway I saw cars and started crying all over again. Both our families were inside awaiting our arrival. We found our moms at the door weeping with joy. There was so much love and happiness in that house at that moment. After toasting the occasion we brought out the food that Frank had hidden so well. Since we were so full from brunch, while everyone else ate, we sat and told the story of how it all happened.
I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect proposal.
