Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Our Engagement

This week Mama M. is doing a really fun Valentine's themed blog hop. I have been slacking so far, but I figured I would try to join in on this one. Today's Topic is your engagement story. I read through a few of the other blog hoppers and some of them are so cute. If you feel like joining in, please do, or join in on one of her other topics this week.

I used to be a little shy about our engagement story because it wasn't a storybook dream engagement that everyone always pictures. It was super romantic and special in my eyes, but I was always a little hesitant to explain it to everyone else. You'll see why in a sec. But as I have read the engagement stories of so many other bloggers today I realized that everyone's is different. Some sound amazing and perfect, some are totally hilarious and full of disaster. So here it is! Coming out of the vault after seven years (Yes I intended that to sound like a disney release of a movie)!

Andy was gearing up for his first deployment and came home for his leave in June. Background: we had already spent lots of time talking about getting married, I had pre-warned my parents that we weren't planning to wait three more years until I was out of undergrad, and super freaky planner me, had already started sewing my "mock-up" for the wedding dress I had in my head. I had come up with the design in high school (not intending it to by my wedding dress...calm down people!...just thinking it would be a beautiful wedding dress) so I needed to make sure it would look good in real life..thus a practice dress before ever being engaged....all this boils down to Natalie is a freaky crazy planner. So anyhoo. The wedding was going to happen....sometime. He hadn't popped the question and I was starting to wonder if he was going to ask at all since we had all but set a date during our phone conversations. He would have 30 days leave at the end of this deployment so we were thinking that would be a good time to do it. He would be home for the holidays, but we were thinking sometime in January so we didn't have to compete with Christmas and New Years.
So I was a little curious if he would ask me during his pre-deployment leave or if he would just assume we were getting hitched in January and that was that. Well I was working while he was home on leave and I knew that he had some days planned to spend time with his dad while I was at work...nothing out of the ordinary. But things in Natalie's life were starting to hit the fan. (Long story short: Mom, who was in remission at the time, finds out Dad has been having an affair....Mom and Dad's marriage is what Natalie has based her whole idea of marriage on...now that it is in shambles, Natalie is having a freak-out session about getting married...is it the right choice?....is she insane?....Does Andy actually want to get married or am I pushing some sort of agenda upon him?.....you know basic crazy girl brain stuff). Anyhoo. I am over at his parent's house and verbalizing said "freak out" session, i.e. crying about my parent's failing marriage and worrying about our own future. I say something along the lines of "How are we supposed to get married when everything I thought I knew about a good marriage turns out to be a lie?". Then Mr. Amazing puts on his cape, pulls me onto his lap, wraps his arms around me and says "Shhh (because I was sobbing) we're not going to be like them. We're going to be like us". *awwwww* Then Andy kisses and hugs Natalie until she stops sobbing and starts smiling again. Then he says "why don't you go grab a tissue from the bathroom". I didn't want to leave out any of the really romantic details here. Yes so I go blow my nose and shutter at the sight of myself in the mirror looking oh so beautiful with red puffy eyes. Then I return to his room where he is laying on the bed with his hand up behind him under the pillow. So I lay down to cuddle next to him and he starts in: "Well I wanted to go out to dinner and put on a big production, but for some reason I just really want to do this now..." me: blink blink 'what?'. Then Andy sits up pulls out a blue leather box and says "Natalie do you want to marry me?". me: "YES!". Him: "You're sure?". Me: "YES!" then he pulls out the most beautiful princess cut diamond ring I have ever seen! *AWWWW*. There's nothin' like a big ole diamond ring to stop a girl from crying!
Here is the bling. Notice the position of our hands. Andy was covering up a cut on my finger from model building.  Architecture School can cause all sorts of problems the week before your wedding.



MckLinky Blog Hop

2 comments:

  1. Um, where's the picture of the RING? HELLO?

    This was one of my favorite stories I've read today. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yay!! I love that you've realized that nobodys story is *perfect (perfect being the fairytale ideal we had in our heads as children!). I was hung over and cranky and had NO idea my hubby was going to do it. I LOVE that your man knew that you needed that demonstration of love and committment right at that exact time - that's what makes it perfect!

    ReplyDelete