Andrew and I are ENGAGED!!! ๐
It feels so strange to say that – I still haven’t comprehended it yet. He is my fiancรฉ. Woah. We have been dating for 5 1/2 years and it finally happened! All of our family and friends kept encouraging him and asking when he was going to do it. Nobody knew of the proposal except for about 6 people, so it came as a major surprise to everybody, especially me. I always thought my best friend would be in on all of it, but she didn’t even know! Getting engaged was the perfect way to end 2021 and begin 2022. We literally were ring-ing in the new year! This is our proposal story.
(Honestly, I’m just here for the Wedding Dress Checklist!)
Before The Engagement
Andrew and I looked at rings at Shane Company back in 2019 and I found one I really loved. A Diamond band with small side stones that we would add a halo to. On December 31, 2021 he proposed with that ring.ย My hair wasn’t done nicely, I wasn’t wearing a cute outfit, and I did not feel attractive at all. I genuinely thought we were just going on a morning hike, so I didn’t put much effort into it. But this is real life and I would take real life over social media “perfection” every day. It’s so much more genuine.
So I’m sure you’re wondering…
How He Proposed
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Engagement Celebration
After our hike we all met my mom for lunch to celebrate together. She was visiting from Virginia and was driving back home after lunch (a 9 hour drive). On the way back from the hike we stopped at Justin and Peter’s house to change before meeting up with her. I knew we were planning on chilling at their house all day so I only brought a casual change of clothes. I didn’t have a change of shoes, so sneakers were the only option. By the time we made it to lunch we ended up being almost an hour later than was orginally planned.
I was trying to text my mom and let her know we were running behind. Little did I know that the lunch had already been planned and Andrew had been in contact with my mom. Andrew’s brother Justin had made a reservation for everyone and went the night before to set up a letter board and flowers. It was so sweet! Andrew and I have been together almost six years and my mom had never met Andrew’s family before. So it was super special that she was able to be there with all of us to celebrate. Everyone got along so well and it brought me so much joy to see everyone together. โค
Ending 2021 and Ring-ing In 2022
The rest of the day was pretty laid-back. We decided to rest and relax for a bit before we started calling family and friends to share the news. My sisters and friends were so happy they almost cried. Hearing their excitement increased mine and almost brought me to tears. It was nice to have a chill night after all of the excitement and emotion earlier in the day. Two friends came over and the six of us played games before watching the NYE countdown. It was perfect.
And of course I had to get photos of the gorgeous ring! I snapped a my first photo of the ring on the way down down the mountain amidst all the fog. I will forever love that photo. The roses from our celebration lunch were so pretty so I had to get a photo with the ring on them too. I love how both of the photos turned out. ๐ธ
Next Steps & Planning
We think we may have decided on the wedding date but we are not telling anyone until it is 100% confirmed. It will likely be late spring/early summer 2023. The day after we got engaged I was already starting to research and do preliminary planning. I mean let’s be real… I have been “planning” my wedding since college. And over the past year or two I have done some research to get ahead for when the time finally came.
My best friend knew I had been planning my wedding since college. She works at a boutique store with the cutest bridal items. So she spoiled me with this pretty Kate Spade Wedding Planner, an updated planner from the one I had in college, and a matching tumbler cup. I actually ended up combining the two binders into one and now I have ultimate wedding planning binder. So far planning has been fun! I hope it stays that way.
This was the engagement announcement photo that I shared on Instagram, along with the wedding planner and tumblr cup:
View this post on Instagram
Last but not least, here are some
Additional Resources
I would definitely recommend getting a wedding planner binder if you do not plan on hiring a wedding planner. You can find a ton of additional helpful planning resources on Pinterest as well. Be sure to follow my Wedding Pinterest Board for inspiration and for additional helpful resources. I also created this Wedding Dress Checklist for finding your perfect dress. Click here to download it for free!
Thank you for reading through our proposal story. I hope you found inspiration and joy in this post. If you are newly engaged, be sure to dowload your FREE Wedding Dress Checklist to help you find the perfect dress (link above). 