I love hearing engagement stories, and I'm pretty sure everyone else does, too - so here's the deal: Tell us your story in the comment box before Sunday, the 24th. A few of my friends will read them and pick one they particularly like. The "winner" will receive a complimentary Bridal or Boudoir Session - just in time for Valentine's Day! Tell us when, where, how - even if things didn't go exactly according to plan, we'll love hearing your stories!
Here's a few shots from Danielle's Bridal Session: (click any photo to see a larger version)
Good luck!
Tell us your engagement story! (Free stuff involved!!)
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 | Posted by Caryn at 11:35 PM
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Oh fun! Well, we got engaged last winter. We had reservations to go to a swanky new restaurant over the weekend, but I came down with the flu. I was particularly disappointed because I felt like I kept coming down sick all winter long (I was teaching pre school, and getting everything the kids had!). Anyways, the night we were supposed to go to dinner I was laying in bed, looking a mess, with a fever and vomiting. (sorry, gross details). I was crying and whining to him about how upset I was that I ruined our plans. He told me it was ok, he loved me, and he wanted to take care of me for the rest of our lives. He got on one knee at the edge of the bed and the rest is history. I was still sick though...it's not cool to have your fiance holding your hair back right after you get engaged. But being proposed to while I was at my worst was very, touching!
For Christmas of 2008, Gregg got me a gift certificate for the two of us to begin taking salsa classes On Friday, February 13th we were supposed to go to our second class at 8:00pm. Gregg called me to tell me he was working late, and would get home just in time to quickly change clothes and head to class. At 7:50 Gregg ran into the apartment, changed, and we walked over to the dance studio. Class began and for the next two hours we worked with our instructor, first learning more basic salsa steps, and then trying them out with partners. At about 10:00 I noticed Gregg was acting distracted and I remember telling him to pay attention. At 10:10 our class ended, and as people were about to pack up and head home, our instructor made an announcement. "We are going to have the beginners show us what they learned tonight, you two can start," and she points to me and Gregg. At this point I was extremely confused, I kept looking around and asking people, "Wait?! What do we have to do? We don't know how to put all of these steps together!" So Gregg and I stepped to the center of the dance studio, and I heard the song "More Than Words" by Extreme playing. I'm thinking "How in the world can we salsa to this?!" Again, so confused. We were standing there, I was waiting for Gregg to start counting out when we would begin, but he wasn't leading.... Seeing us struggle, the rest of the room counted out loud " 1-2-3, 5-6-7" and we began. We proceeded to stumble and struggle through a handful of salsa steps, including Gregg spinning himself instead of me. Then Gregg, with a little twitch in his lip, said “I have one more move to show you...." and got down on one knee!!! I could see that he was on his knee and that he had a ring in a box, but that was about it. My vision was blurry, my hand was clapped over my mouth, I was embarrassed from our bad dancing, emotional from what I realized was unfolding in front of me and did I mention hot?! There was moisture dripping down the windows at this point! I had immediately answered "Of course!" but apparently no one heard me, so everyone started asking "Did you say yes? Did you say yes?" So, in a tiny dance studio, in front of about 40 people, I got engaged to the man of my dreams! And the ring he hand designed for me was absolutely breathtaking. Once I calmed down to actually look at it, I didn't stop for the next 12 hours...literally! I didn't sleep a wink. It was too late to call anyone aside from immediate family and close friends, so I had to live through the torture of waiting until the morning to share my news. I soon found out that Gregg had not been at work late. He was actually at the dance studio asking the instructor if it was ok to play the song for me and propose after class. She put her own twist on the plan by asking us to dance in front of everyone. And when Gregg wised up and realized that he held the power to make the dancing humiliation stop, he put us out of our misery and got on with the proposal! We will be getting married July 31, 2010.
Dana and Dom part 1: Dom's Version
I had just picked the ring up from Frost & Co and was trying to figure out the best way to pop the question. Kennywood was my ideal location from the beginning because I know it is her favorite place on the planet. After I picked up the ring I got a call from Dana. She was having one of those days where nothing was going right and was down in the dumps. I knew that this would be a good opportunity to lift her spirits so I played the whole thing aloof. She had wanted to go to Kennywood for a while and I kept finding a reason to wait knowing that I wanted to make her night at Kennywood special. This being such a great opportunity I told her to pick somewhere to go, knowing she would pick Kennywood right away. Sure enough my tricky plan worked. Now I had to rush home to make sure I found a good place to hide the ring. I stuffed the ring inside of a sock and buried it under a countless amount of stinky smelly friends. I had about an hour to kill so I decided I would get a quick start to the weekend chores and mow the lawn. That was a big mistake. Just as I was about finished with the lawn I mowed over a ground bee nest and ticked off the "colony." Seven bees proceeded to sting my left calf causing me to break dance in the middle of my yard. The neighbors haven't looked at me the same since.
When Dana got home she quickly changed and we made our way off to Kennywood. When we were entering the gate to Kennywood I realized that there were metal detectors and I got really nervous thinking that the ring would cause one of them to go off. I told Dana to go in without me so that I could pass by without her seeing the ring. Sure enough she couldn't go through because we had to be scanned in at the same time."Great" and a couple of other choice words were going through my head at the time. Luckily I was able to pass through without any of the metal detectors going off.
We were in Kennywood for about two hours before I had an opportunity to pull Dana aside to finally make my move. When I tell you this girl loves Kennywood, I mean it! We made our way over to Lost Kennywood by the bridge overlooking the Pittsburgh Plunge. One of the "Plungers" was about to go down to make a splash so I decided that was my cue to do the same. I untied a shoe thinking that was a good excuse to make my move but it turns out I didn't need an excuse. When Dana saw me drop to a knee she was worried that my calf was hurting because of my run in with the "colony." She asked me if I was ok and I said, "yes but I have a very important question to ask you." I pulled out the ring and she proceeded to tell me to "shut up" about ten times. She'll deny it but I was a little bit more focused at this point than she was. I said, "Dana I love you." She said, you guessed it, "shut up." I decided it was probably a good time to cut to the chase and asked her "will you marry me?" I fully expected her to say shut up yet again but instead she decided to just grab the ring, shake her head yes, put it on, and then with her doe eyes looked at me and said, "yes." A pretty masculine proposal if I may say so myself!
Dana and Dom Part 2: Dana's version
I knew the proposal was coming, but I didn't know when and I didn't know how. So, I always made sure I looked remotely nice and that I didn't bite my nails. That week was a LONG week for me, so I knew I wanted to spend that Friday with Dom after work. I had been dying to go to Kennywood with him, so I suggested that, since it is the place that always makes me smile. I was so happy that he said we could go, I wasn't even thinking that he might propose to me there and I put on "park clothes" instead of wearing the cute sundress I should have.
It was the hottest, muggiest, day of the summer and we were both disgusting by the time we even got into the park. We rode some rides and then just wandered around holding hands. We walked into lost Kennywood and stood by the Pittsburgh Plunge to catch the mist of the water ride to cool down. He, of course, kept trying to get me closer to the "splash zone" so that I would get soaked. Then, we sat down at a table nearby, but he suggested moving to sit next to the fountain.
We were watching the Pittsburgh Plunge come down and I saw him get on one knee to my right. At first I thought his leg was hurting (because he had been stung by 75 bees on is leg earlier). Then, I thought he was tying his shoe. Finally, I realized what actually was happening! All I heard was "I love you." I immediately said "You're kidding me!", "Shut Up!", "Yes!" and bent down and snatched the ring out of the box and tried to put it on my finger, but it wouldn't fit! My hands were so swollen from the heat that I had to shove it on with all my might. Don't worry guys, I definitely gave him a hug and a kiss after that. Looking back, I probably should have let him put it on me, but it doesn't surprise me that I did it myself... I was so excited - my heart was going a mile a minute! Afterwards, I learned that Dom did say a lot more, but I missed it because I was trying to figure out what was going on. I was stunned. After calling everyone, Dom asked if I wanted to go out and celebrate or have people over. Absolutely not! I wanted to finish the night, with just him, at Kennywood and never leave! It was the perfect night and I didn't want it to end... and it hasn't!
*If you want to see the real pictures of us from that day, let me know. But I refuse to release them because we are both so sweaty... how romantic!
I love the idea Caryn! When Cor and I had first stated dating, I was in grad school and had to spend an Easter away from my family to study for a round of tests the following day so Cor had surprised me with a huge Easter basket full of candy and a stuffed rabbit. 2 years later, on Good Friday, I came home from work to an almost identical easter basket, bottle of wine and home cooked dinner. He had me open the easter eggs one by one each filled with candy or a coin for a lotto scratch off ticket. I was so busy enjoying the peanut butter eggs I never even noticed the stuffed bunny was holding one as well until he handed it to me, got down on bended knee, and I opened it to find my beautiful ring. How can you not say yes when you're that lucky to have such an amazing man in your life :)
It all started Friday, Sept. 12th 2008. Mike picked me up at my apt on the south side and asked me where I wanted to get dinner. I guess he was banking on me saying that I didn't care because he had already had plans to go back to where we had our first date, Fatheads. After dinner, he handed me a note saying not to open it until after he left for the night. When I opened the note, it had a list of things to pack for the next day. I had no idea what he was planning or where we were going. The next day on the drive to our mystery destination he still wouldn't give any clues. About two hours later, we arrived at the Tara Inn the Hermitage, PA. The Tara Inn was the place that I had dreamed of getting married since I was a little girl. He had booked a beautiful suite and made a white glove service dinner reservation for that evening. At dinner, right before the main course, he got down on one knee and proposed. Of course I said yes. The next day, he surprised me again by making an appointment with Tara's wedding coordinator. We booked our wedding. About a year later, we celebrated our wedding at the very same place we got engaged.
I *love* telling this story! Jason asked me to marry him on Mother's day this year, May 10, 2009 (we don't have children so I was definitely surprised! haha). Jason was away on a business trip the week before (or so I thought he was gone all that time - Friday he was over my parents asking permission for my hand....awwww!) and all week we joked around about what our two dogs would buy me for Mother's Day. So on Sunday morning, after just waking up hair all a mess, laying on the couch in my pajamas Jason goes upstairs and comes down with a big box and a card. I am so surprised, so I open it and it was the purse I had been in love with. At this point I am crying over how happy I am and thanking him non-stop! He says, wait the boys and I have one more thing for you...so he takes them upstairs and I can hear them running around (by the way I am down stairs still crying over the purse, I have it on my shoulder modeling it), so finally the boys run down the stairs and they have little white t-shirts on, and I am cracking up laughing because they are wrestling around with eachother. I think the shirts say "Happy Mother's Day" "We Love You"....Jason keeps saying I think you should read the shirts and I keep saying I did! So he gets serious with me and says please just read the shirts, so I stop the dogs and I read them, and I look up at him and I say "SERIOUSLY?!?!" (They say "Will You Marry Me?") He gets on one new, I drop onto the couch because I am shaking so bad. He says I have never loved someone as much as you and I would like nothing else but to spend the rest of my life loving you. I couldn't speak I was sobbing so hard, but I somehow squeeked YES! He put the ring on my finger and I grabbed my phone and called my parents...They had been waiting for me to call! It was hands down the most memorable and best day of my life, and I cannot even wait till we get married this July!
This is a blog about how Trevor asked me to marry him so that everyone can know the story.
So I was planning on hanging out with Ria face yesterday and I figured we were just gonna chill at her house when her mom gave me an envelope that she told me was from her boyfriend jeremy to give to ria. So I gave ria the letter and rias mom gave her another letter from jeremy which basically explained to ria that she was going on a scavenger hunt. (for what, she didn't know) But we didn't have anything else to do so we just went along with it. The second letter was a riddle that led us to the monroeville mall near cache. There we met our friend Taryn and was waiting for us with two starbucks drinks and another clue. This 2nd clue led us to johnny carino's in the mall and there we found our friend bethany with another clue. Mind you, by this point they acted like they had no idea what "Jeremy" was planning with this scavenger hunt and that the whole thing was for my best friend ria. Anyways, the third clue led us to the cheesecake factory in the southside where we met our other friend cassie. By this point I wanted to kill jeremy because I just wanted to know when the last stop was! lol So cassie gave us another clue which led all 5 of us girls to station square near the incline. We were thirsty and had to go to the bathroom so we stopped at a mall and roamed around for a little while then went to the incline where we finally met Jeremy! He then got down on one knee and acted like he was going to propose to ria but then gave her 2.50 which she gave to me and the last clue. Everybody then looked at me and told me to get on the incline....by myself!!!!! At this point I was soooo confused because I thought the whole thing was for ria! Anyways, I got on the incline and continued to read the clue which told me to "meet at the first light". So I got off the incline, paid for a ticket, and then walked wearily in bewilderment when I saw trevor standing near a street light. I went over to him and the first thing he said was "so how was ur day?" !!! By this time I was just dying to know what was going on. He then continued to tell me that he thought we should break up! I was like you did all of this to break up with me???? He then reminded me of something that we used to talk about before we courted. We used to talk about just being friends and randomly getting married without even dating. So he then said we can be just friends now so that we can get married=] he then got down on one knee(with a tear in his eye) and asked me to do life with him. I said you "You mean marry me?" and he said yes...so of course I said yes=] then his best friend aaron came over and started snapping pictures and my friends came off the incline and were like your getting married we tricked youuuu lol
Part One: Where should I begin? Well, Jared and I got engaged last fall/start of winter 11/20/08 - At Pittsburgh Light Up Night to be exact! Jared and I had plans to go to Light Up Night but our evening was not off to a great start...I was driving home from work and I was a little stressed out because I was running late and I was trying to get a hold of Jared. So I am calling and calling and he was MIA. Finally I get a hold of him and I am flustered at this point...but he seems rather giggly and in a rather good mood on the other end...which was making things worse because I was rather annoyed. After he arrived at my house we headed to Light Up Night downtown. I should mention that Light Up Night is definitely my FAVORITE event that happens downtown every year! So with that in mind I was pretty anxious to get there. Most of the car ride Jared kept asking me all kinds of questions about ice skating (which was rather odd to me). I LOVE ICE SKATING....and he doesn't really care for it. He was asking things like: Will the ice skating rink be open? Will there be lots of people? How much does it usually cost? Is the line long? Will there be a line? Do a lot of people ice skate at Light Up Night? All of which the answer was YES! Then followed by why are you asking so many questions about ice skating...you don't even like to ice skate?!? His response: Just wondering. After we found a place to park we walked by the ice skating rink which is always packed with people...and this is where Jared started to get really nervous/fidgety. I thought nothing of it really because he is always like that in large crowds of people. So we managed to leave that area and head towards market square. We walked around a bit more which at times seemed like we were sprinting through the crowds of people. We walked through Macy's (a personal favorite of mine) for a bit and then realized the time.....The fireworks were about to start! We decided to watch the fireworks from Station Square so we rushed out of Macy's and then crossed the icy Smithfield Street Bridge to Station Square. It was packed! Jared just kept walking until no one was around....which again is pretty normal because he hates crowds. So we are both leaning against the fense watching the fireworks when Jared decided that he wanted to stand right in front of me....and when I say stand right in front of me....it looked like he wanted to hug or something...but he was frozen (I mean it was pretty cold out that night....If I remember correctly it was in the low 20's)...
Part Two: Anyways, I looked at him and said what are you doing...I am trying to watch the fireworks! (I am pretty serious about fireworks) So I then proceeded to go around so that I could stand in front of him so that I could lean on him while watching the fireworks....apparently that was not a good idea because he backed up and I lost my balance and almost fell. Well this repeated a few more times and the final time I was thinking now what in the world is going on -- this is getting ridiculous! (He had the ring in his front pocket of his jacket and he didn't want me to lean against it) Well he came and stood right in front of me again and all of a sudden dropped to one knee! I was in shock that it never even occured to me to take a step back so that I wasn't staring at a beautiful ring practically resting on my belly (yes, that is how close he was standing!) He asked me to marry him and a minute after he asked me and I said YES he said, “that wasn't at all what I wanted to say.” I was not expecting him to say that right after he proposed but it didn't matter! He was so nervous and adorable! We went out to dinner afterward where Jared ended up spilling water all over his lap (he was super fidgety).... I couldn't stop laughing because I was just about to tell him that he should probably stop playing with the straw because he might spill his water and before I could even spit the sentence out....his water spilled! Needless to say the walk across the bridge after dinner was not very pleasant when your pants are frozen. Oh...Also at dinner he told me the reason why he kept asking me questions about ice skating was because that was his original plan and where he was going to propose. Apparently he even borrowed his roommates skates and was practicing knealing on one knee in their basement....ADORABLE!! Well, that is our story - It was a wonderful evening and it will be an evening I will never forget!
So I am going to be the odd ball of all the posts that have come in on this one. My story begins four years ago when I started dating the love of my life. We have always known that we were going to be together forever and "live happily ever after". So time goes by and everything is nearly perfect and then his family (whom I am very close with) starts to get on his case about getting engaged. I never got involved because I know how we feel about each other and I din't want him to feel pressured. Well it all boils down to his mother....she talks me into going to pick out a ring and I do. Well I fell in love with a beautiful ring in the store and I tell him all about it. The very next day he takes me to the store I picked it from, buys the ring and proposes to me. If it weren't for his mother being on my side, who knows where we would be today. He was bugged by his family for the last three years about us getting married and now it is my reality and the best feeling I have ever had! Our wedding date is March 26, 2011 and I can't wait to be his wife!
Well, 4 1/2 years ago I was playing in left field on my co-ed softball team. A fly ball was coming towards me. As I was putting up my right hand to cover the ball as it came into my glove, the ball tipped my index finger and popped the joint. I went into the dugout holding my hand asking (sarcastically) if there was a doctor in the house. At the end of the dugout was a new team mate that I had never seen before saying "I can fix that for you." As I looked over I thought to myself "ooh, he's cute." From that moment there was a connection. He got my number later that evening and a few days later he asked me on a date. Before we knew it, 3 1/2 years flew by.
Well, last March of '09 I was out of town all week for work. Jon knew he had to make plans while I was away; otherwise I probably would have caught on to his plans. I returned home and he asked if I wanted to go out to dinner but he had a few things he wanted to do first. One of which was to measure the baseball field. He coaches his sons baseball team and claimed he wanted to use that particular field for practice. So he needed to make sure the base distances were correct for the boys to practice on (but he was lieing obviously.)
So anyway, he convinced me to go to the fields in the middle of winter, trudging through the mud, and actually use a tape measure to measure the distances between bases. As I started to walk back towards the road he asked where I was going. I said "let's go! It's freezing and I am getting all muddy. We got everything measured." Well at this point there was no luring me back towards the dugout, so he knelt down on the 3rd base line and said "this is where we met and began our relationship, so this is where I want to ask you to spend your life with me. Will you marry me?" I of course started crying and then said yes. It was everything I could have dreamed of (with the exception of the mud.) And then off to dinner we went. -The End
My fiancé, Brandon, contacted his mother, Anne, in April of 2008 to let her know he wanted to propose to me and that he wanted it to happen in front of my family & friends. Brandon and Anne devised a plan to have Anne call me to let me know that she wanted to throw Brandon a surprise birthday party. I LOVE surprises so I jumped right into planning.... little did I know I was planning my OWN engagement party. All of my family and friends got invitations to a surprise birthday party for Brandon…. The only people that knew that this was going to be an engagement party were Brandon, his mom and of course my dad.
Over the next couple of months I went back and forth with Anne to put together a birthday party for Brandon.
The day of the big party (July 5th, 2008) I was very nervous and as I look back Brandon was acting as weird as I probably was. I guess because we both were keeping a secret from each other.... well, I thought I was. As we got closer to Brandon's parents house I texted my friend that "We are close." Brandon, knowing what I was doing the whole time, only could smile knowing that the party was about to surprise ME the most. In front of family and the closest friends Brandon got down on one knee and popped the question... of course I said "YES!!!" We are getting married in 3 months, April 24, 2010. I can’t believe how fast the time has past!!!
You all are AMAZING!! I absolutely loved reading every single one of your engagement stories! I laughed right out loud so often, and a few times even read with tears in my eyes. It was so much fun getting to know each one of you a little more through your writing style, your perspectives, and your reactions to one of the most significant events of your life. I'm so lucky to have such a unique and talented group of brides and grooms to work with!
Tonight, I will be sending your stories out to a group of my friends, along with a poll. As soon as I hear back from them, I'll let you know! I'm SO glad I don't have to choose - I'd never be able to!
Thank you again for sharing your stories!
Hugs to you all :)
Caryn
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