Pretty Little Pursuits: Is This Real Life?

I wanted to share our proposal story on here as a way to document that amazing day, as well as to share our story with our friends, family, and of course my blog family and readers. Warning: It is loonnnnggg.. I apologize in advance. It was such a special day, I didn't want to leave anything out! Also, some pictures were taken with cell phones through all of the excitement, so please excuse the blurriness.

But first..

Okay here we go..In order to understand the significance of the proposal, we must rewind.

Flashback: Several years ago Jon surprised me with a trip to New York for Valentine's Day. We were only there a few days, but we crammed as much as we could in our short visit! Of course, I wanted to do all of the touristy things and he was such a good sport to go along with it. Our second night there we had an absolute blast doing just that! We made our way to Central Park, got a caricature drawn of us, took a carriage ride, and then went to eat Chinese (which was the best Chinese I have ever had in my life)! We made so many memories that trip!

This makes us laugh every time we see it! We paid good money for this... hahaha Wow!

We also got another caricature done this past January in Florida at Sea World... because I just love them so much! I know I'm such a nerd!

Proposal Day:

A few weeks ago Jon told me he had a very important business meeting with the partners of his company and he wanted me there to support him. A few days before the meeting he told me that he would be playing golf with his business partners all day, and the company was paying for hotels for each of them to stay in Greenville that night. He told me to pack a bag and just come to the hotel after work to get ready for the dinner. Well.. if you know me at all.. you know that I hate to do anything on a school night! I tried to weasel my way out of having to go to the hotel, and just meeting him at the dinner. He wouldn't budge though, so the night before I was stomping around packing a bag, mumbling to myself that I just didn't see the big deal of me meeting him there.

Fast forward to Thursday after school, I get to the hotel and run in the door so excited telling him that my amazing co-workers voted and I got Teacher of the Year at my school!! I just couldn't believe it! He was so excited for me as always, and told me he had a snack for me to hold me over for dinner. On the desk, he had my slice of pizza and tons of documents with statistics from his company, meeting agendas, and pages and pages of documents showing the company's growth. I proofread pages, went over his agenda, and then got ready for dinner. Meanwhile he told me several stories about the windy "golf" day he had, and even had his golf clothes laying around. As I was getting ready for dinner, he said he was running downstairs to meet his business partner and his wife. When he came back in the room, he said that they were running late but he arranged for us to take a cab. On our way to the "cab", he told me he was so excited to see what he got us to ride in to dinner. When we got down to the lobby, there was a horse and carriage outside of the hotel. I couldn't believe we were taking this to the business dinner but of course I loved it!!!

And no at this point I had no idea!! I had no clue the entire time!

We get to the entrance of Falls Park, and he tells me we are going to wait here for his partner and his wife. As we are waiting there, we start walking around a bit, and he gets a phone call. While he is on the phone, a woman approaches us and asks us if we had time for a caricature. She said she was starting a new hobby, and she often comes here to practice. Jon told her that we didn't have much time, and she told us it would be very quick about 10 minutes. Then, he asked her how much it would be and she said it would be free because she was just practicing. Of course I wanted to do it, and just elbowed him. We sat down at a bench with a waterfall in front of us, and a bridge behind us. It took over ten minutes, and I kept whispering to Jon "Oh no we are going to be late!" He just smiled and said "It's okay, they can't start without me!". And then I realized I had no cash to tip her with either!! So.. there I go elbowing him again- "Um babe we need to tip her and I don't have any cash!" After whispering about how much of a tip we should give her, she told us she was ready to show us.

Oh my goodness I was in shock!! I just kept looking at her saying "are you serious, seriously?!!?" Then, she pointed to him, and he was down on one knee! Oh my goodness was I in shock!! After being convinced this was real life, I finally said YES!! I just couldn't believe it!

After the excitement of the actual proposal, I heard my family screaming. They were up on the bridge watching the whole thing. His parents flew in from California, my parents were on the IPAD face timing from Arizona, my aunt, uncle, sisters, and brother-in-law were all there to celebrate. He got a limo to pick my family up to drive them to Greenville, and then take us to dinner afterwards. The limo was full of champagne, beer, roses, and a sweet card he wrote me. Then, he asked where I thought we were going next.. Um- home I thought?! Nope, he had recreated our entire New York night, and took us to Chinese afterwards.

After a night of celebrating with our families, we stayed in the hotel. When I woke up to get ready for school, room service was knocking on the door. The man thought of every last detail! It was absolute perfection. Not only was the proposal amazing... I am marrying a man that I never thought could ever exist. He is perfect for me, and I cannot wait to start our lives together!

Thanks for reading our extremely long proposal story! Ladies that have wedding planning experience, please email me with suggestions, tips, etc!! I need all the help I can get with planning this!! Our first night of planning ended in an anxiety attack and me telling him, he didn't care about our wedding. The next day I came home to this....