Jump Back!

I love you more than... carbs!

As I stated previously, Aaron and I got engaged at the end of August and it is now the end of October so I feel like I should jump back a few steps since we have gotten a little bit of planning accomplished in the last month or so.

I would like to begin with when the engagement chatter first reared its ugly pimply head!  I say it this way because when family and friends start throwing around the W and M words (wedding and married) it begins to consume you.  Well it did to me anyway.  

For those who don't know, I was in Dobbs Ferry New York for three and a half months on my college internship.  That's three and a half months away from my friends, my family, my car, my household comforts and most importantly my dear sweet Aaron.  Everyone, and I mean every one of my friends was positive Aaron was going to propose before I went to New York.  Either at Christmas, New Years or at the airport.  All of these moments came and passed and there was no proposal to be seen.  I was not surprised since I had stated numerous times that a holiday engagement was not something I was interested in.  Aaron and I made a plan that he would come visit me my last week in New York and we would fly home together. During one of our nightly Skype conversations Aaron mentions that there is a Groupon for $160/nt at a castle in New York normally $400/nt. (http://www.oheka.com/).  I was shocked Aaron would even want to stay at a place like this so instead of questioning his motives I jumped at the chance to feel like a princess at a castle for a night! 

Of course when I told my friends we would be staying at this beautiful hotel AND it was Aaron's idea again everyone thought he was going to propose in New York.  Even though I knew better, I know Aaron wouldn't have traveled with a ring, the whole time Aaron visited me in New York, I was secretly preparing myself for it to happen.  When we watched the sunset from the Top of the Rock on the Empire State Building I prepared myself, when we stayed at the castle I prepared myself, when we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, I prepared myself.  Do you know how emotionally exhausting it is always being on alert for something to happen?? By the end of the trip I was just thankful to be going home and being with Aaron once again.  But..... because I am who I am, I was curious why he didn't pop the question when the romantic scenery was handed to him on a silver platter.  So I asked, on the plane ride home.  Just to be difficult, he didn't want to talk about it while surrounded by a couple of hundred perfect strangers.  So I waited patiently until we stopped for dinner in Everett after we landed in Seattle some 6 hours later.  "why didn't you propose?" I asked.  Oh yeah that's a question every guy wants to be asked! Let alone after the stress of traveling with someone for 12 hours.  I half expected him to say "remember that fight we had at the train station on the way to the airport.... that's why".  But he didn't.  He just got a sly smile, looked up at me from his burger and fries and said "I was going to.  But I didn't have a ring".  Hold on!! What??? So what does this mean exactly??? We are going to start looking at rings?? Can we go ring shopping when we get home???? So...... we're like going to get married for reals???? 
  
So from that you can conclude that the engagement wasn't a huge surprise, but the proposal was!  Aaron and I were given one of the most amazing gifts a couple getting engaged could get.  The centre diamond of my ring was given to us by my Aunty Patti on my dads side.  It was once one of three stones on my Grandma's wedding ring.  Uhm can we say just saved us a fortune!!! Knowing we had this diamond we went about looking at ring designs but there weren't very many jewelers that offered settings you could put your own diamond into.  Because I new that my best friend had her ring made at Dallany in Coquitlam centre I always just assumed I would get my ring made there also.  I mean if you have seen her ring you would know why!  So we went into Dallany just to get an idea of what the cost would be for my dream design (a combination of three 1920-30's art deco rings I have had images of for 6  months).  


We were quoted an amazing price for both the engagement and the wedding band.  We hadn't planned on starting the design process that day but somehow we got talked into putting the deposit down.  Needless to say I cried on the walk back to the car! I couldn't believe that after months of people telling me it was going to happen, that now it was happening.


Aaron and I both agreed that I would design the ring and give approvals on the molds up until the last one but after that I would no longer be involved. I didn't want to see the finished product or know when the ring was ready until it was presented to me as a marriage proposal.  Even though we were doing things very non traditionally, we agreed that we would like to have a traditional proposal.    

Months went by, literally months and I had heard nothing of the ring.  If I recall I gave the final approval of the ring in June and we started the process in April.  It got to the point where I had convinced myself it was never going to happen, Aaron had changed his mind and given the diamond back to my Aunt! I was going bat shit crazy in anticipation!  To add to the waiting insanity, even if Aaron had the ring, my work schedule was so ridiculous: Friday - Tuesday 230pm -10pm; Aaron and I only saw each other 19 hours a week (yes that is a specific number of hours, I actually counted them one week), there were no opportunities to even have a romantic date for him to propose!

Then there came a week in August, where I had a Friday night off!! I know!! I was pretty stoked about planning a date for the first time in 9 weeks with my long lost love!  So again because I am who I am I start asking on Monday what we should do on our Friday night date.  And Aaron shocks the shit out of me.  He says, "Let's go to Van Duesen Gardens".  I pretty much shot him down on the spot.  I didn't mean to but come on, like Aaron wants to walk around a garden for three hours looking at flowers.  I thought that's super nice that he wants to do something for me but I really don't want to feel like I'm dragging him around all night.  I thought why don't we do something we both want to do.  So I recommended we go up to see Shannon falls since three times a year we talk about stopping there and we never have time.  So that was the plan!  Shannon Falls on Friday!

Because I'm such an amazingly wonderfully nice person, I offered to drive a couple of co-workers home after work on Friday since they were on the way, but like an idiot this put me behind schedule.  So I get home scramble to get ready since I have to be dressed to hike up a hill to water falls and also be nice enough to go for dinner after.  So we head to Squamish and of course we get caught in the most ridiculous weekend traffic.  What should have taken us 45 mins took us an hour and a half.  I was honestly worried the park would be closed or it would be dark by the time we got up there.  So we make it to the park it is still daylight thank goodness, and we hike up to the falls and there is a large family standing at the rail so I decide that if we hike up these steps we will be able to see better... I was wrong!  So the whole time Aaron is asking me to come back down and lets just look at the falls from the view point.  I finally concede and by this time the family is gone.  We are standing at the railing and I keep smacking my elbow on the rail because it's built for people who are not vertically challenged, and I'm cursing away because it really hurts! Aaron is standing behind me being very affectionate and kinda weird.  We are looking at the falls and Aaron says to me "Hey babe, what the heck is this thing on the ground here?"  I'm like what thing? I didn't see a thing.  I turn around and Aaron is down on one knee!!! So this is where I lose it.  I start crying and all I can say is "oh my goodness it's happening.  This is happening, it's happening now!"  Aaron kept it very sweet and simple.  He told me he loves me and he wants to spend the rest of his life with me and would I marry him?  Uhm YES of course YES!!!! When I saw the ring I was in shock!  Pictures just don't do it justice in my opinion!

We had a romantic dinner at the boathouse in Port Moody which is kinda kizmit since that is where we are getting married (not the boathouse but PM - that's another blog post).  We spent the next few days telling family and friends our wonderful news and I spent the next few days freaking out about booking a venue!

On August 12th 2009 I had my first date with the man I knew immediately I was going to spend the rest of my days with.  On August 24th 2012 I became engaged to the love of my life and on August 2nd 2013 he will make me the happiest woman in the world by making me his wife!