Adventures in ParaDyess: The Proposal

We’ve talked about the dating years, now it’s time for the proposal…

I was in the third semester of the four in my Masters program. I had a job offer with the Marine Corps. I had moved back in at home and Ryan was almost done with his associates. It was November of 2015. Obviously since we had been dating for four years, we had discussed getting engaged and eventually married. Does that mean it came without thought? Nope. I was nervous…I mean Ryan is the only guy I ever dated. I have perfectionistic tendencies and what if the things that I think are cute now annoy me when we’re married (hint: THEY WILL but it’s okay)? So yes, I actually thought about it. But I’m glad we made the right (and a little scary) decision to get engaged and married. He’s my best friend and sometimes I forget that he’s a whole person separate from me. But I guess when you’re together for 10 years, it seems that way.

Anyway…back to the story. Thanksgiving of 2015. We were at my aunt’s house for Thanksgiving dinner and we were looking at all the sales papers because why not. So we decided to head to the mall to wander around and try to find some deals. So we walk in and probably go to Dick’s Sporting Goods because, ya know, athletes always gotta look. And then we keep walking and Ryan’s like “Oh, let’s go look at rings real quick”. Again, I’m not surprised because I knew this was coming, but I’m like sure, let’s go look. So we sit down and the sales guy is showing me all these crazy asymmetrical rings and I’m like mmm I would like something more like *that* (pointing to a solitaire with a pretty, vintage looking band) so we look at that one, and another that has cool criss-crossies on the band. So we take pictures of those two and then leave that store. We go to a couple other jewelry stores and really the only other ring I like was just a plain solitaire on a white gold band. We had decided that Ryan would get to choose out of those three that I liked. He chose correctly ;)

Come to find out later, Ryan had pre-scoped out the first store that we went to, had already talked to the sales guy and told him which rings to show me…and all the ones Ryan liked were all the crazy asymmetrical ones. Needless to say, I’m glad he let me in on the decision (HINT to all BFs proposing soon…enlist her help, or at least that of her Pinterest board or best friend)!

He went back and bought *the ring* the next day. And also, in true Ryan fashion, found an engagement ring for sale on Craigslist that turned out to be a CERTIFIED DIAMOND. My man knows the way to my heart—bargains (LOL).

Sooo just a reminder that he bought the ring in November…my dude held onto it until FEBRUARY…the end of February. ALMOST MARCH. He didn’t want me to be one of the many girls to get engaged during the holidays so he waited and, ya know, I appreciate it. But I’m also impatient. We would be sitting in his room and he would pull out the ring box and pretend like he was going to propose or show it to me *face palm* but he didn’t. He waited and waited and waited. And then FINALLY it happened.

February 28th. Our half year dating anniversary. We had been together for 4.5 years. We went to church that morning and had plans to celebrate my sister’s birthday that evening. There was a meeting for an event that we serve at after church but Ryan had asked the guy who ran it if we could dip out early. We had plans to go horseback riding at the wedding venue that we already had booked even though we weren’t engaged yet (more on that in the next blog post). I had asked him earlier that week if he was going to propose and of course he said no…so I believed him. It was pretty nice out for a February day, thankfully. We drove down to Orange, tacked up the horses and went for a trail ride. Apparently (I found out later) we came back earlier than we were supposed to because nothing was set up yet. So we were riding down this one trail and there are low hanging branches and despite my best efforts to get her to go AROUND this branch, my horse decides to run me straight into it. I was so mad and literally thought “well, good thing he’s not proposing today” LOL. Joke’s on me. So we come out of that tunnel and take a hard left into a field, ride around there for a little and then take the horses back to the stable. The venue owner comes over and asks if we can wash the horses too, and ya know, it was a nice day so I didn’t mind. Turns out Ry’s fam was setting up the place and were running a little behind. So we wash the horses and as I think we’re about to leave, he hands me a blindfold. I was thinking “OH LORD THIS IS IT”.

He walks me what seems like FOREVER but I know where we’re headed. We’re headed to the tree we’re going to get married under. We get there and he takes the blindfold off of me. We’re standing in the middle of a heart made out of mason jars with little fake candles in them and rose petals on the ground *swoon*. He reads me a letter that he wrote me and of course I start crying. He tells me to cover my eyes and he leaves and comes back and tells me to uncover my eyes and he has a little PIGGY and the piggy has a shirt on that says will you marry me and he gets down on one knee and asks me to marry him—cue more tears. So of course I say yes and once we’re done hugging and kissing and whatever, I turn around and he had one of our family friends photograph it for us. Guys, take notes…he did all the right things. My nails were done, there were pictures, it was perfect.

Then we drive back to his parents’ house who, of course, knew what was happening. And then we all go over to my parents’ house because obviously this party for my sister is also an engagement celebration with my fam. Except only my immediate family knew. You should have seen the look on my grandma’s face and the shriek she let out when she saw my ring. It was awesome. He did good.

So yeah…that’s the story of how we got engaged. Next up, the eight months we were engaged. Lots happened so buckle up.