Our Engagement Story
I must preface this story by telling you that it is a bit of a winding story but I promise all the details are important to the story as a whole.
Since before I can even remember, jewelry has never just been jewelry. My dad would take me to a local jewelry store and would let me help pick out what pieces I loved best. I didn’t love a piece because it was the biggest or because it had the most sparkles, I loved a piece because it represented my mother and my parents love the best. All throughout my life I have known that an engagement ring or a necklace, is never just a piece of jewelry.
Jake gave me a promise ring during high school. He picked it out himself. I have always loved the promise ring he picked out and I have loved looking at my hand and seeing it for the past five years.
I worked at a jewelry store for two years and loved every minute of it. I adored my co-worker, learning more about all types of jewelry and getting to pick out what my “dream engagement” ring. While I worked at Rogers and Hollands, I had this one specific ring that I loved. In August, my dad and I went and looked at other rings at multiple jewelry stores in the St. Cloud area. And what do you know? My taste as definitely shifted. I must have looked at over thirty rings that day. Our final stop on our jewelry tour was my old workplace. As I was catching up with my co-workers, one very stunning and unique ring jumped out at me because it looked very similar to the promise ring Jake had gotten me years before. The only difference was that this ring had more sparkles and had this beautiful two-tone twist. The line was being discontinued so no one would ever have the same ring. I was in awe of the ring’s beauty but I didn’t really think anything of it. The ring represented our first promise to each other. However, behind my back, my dad and Jake had hatched a plan. And just over a month later, the plan all came together.
My wonderful co-workers at Rogers & Hollands.
During our “tour of the jewelry stores” my dad turns to me and asks, “Roughly, what do you think your wedding budget would be?” I only had the price of a venue that I worked at for a summer so I needed more information on other venue places. So, I decided to dive down the wedding investigation rabbit hole and reach out to a few venues in the Minnesota area. I am an ultra-planner so this did not stress me out, but rather gave me clarity and answers. However, I am warning you now, if you are not ready to be confronted with anxiety causing bunnies, do not go down the wedding investigation rabbit hole. I thought I had picked a date far enough in advance that I would be stressed out by the venues. However, the random (really not so random) date I selected, turned out to be the most popular date requested from 2020. To stay on top of the planning process, we planned a weekend with my whole family to go and tour our top three venues.
We toured three absolutely gorgeous venues that are each unique in their own way. Within stepping into the first venue, we realized that it perfectly embodied who we are and the wedding we hope to celebrate together with the people we love most. However, we kept an open mind about the following two venues and they were amazing and wonderful, they just weren’t the first venue.
Our last venue stop was halfway between St. Cloud which was convenient because then we got to bring Scout with. When we adopted Scout we contributed to a fundraiser by purchasing t-shirts to support the foster organization (Heading Home K9 Rescue) that we worked with. We have wanted to take a nice picture “family photo” in these shirts to send as a thank you to them ever since.
Apart from touring the venue on September 30th, our main objective for the day was to capture a photo with our little family. After the tour was completed Jake thought it would be nice if we took a picture with Scout in the gazebo. At first, Scout (being the scared-y cat that he is) did not want to go into the gazebo so Jake and I took a photo just the two of us. I remember thinking as I had my hand on his chest that, “I think something is wrong with him, his heart is beating so fast”. But that was a fleeting thought because we got Scout to come in and we took a nice family photo. As Scout moved I looked down at him and when I looked up, Jake was on one knee.
“This planning process would be so much easier if we were engaged, will you marry me?”
The perfect moment
I have imagined this precious moment for years but the actual proposal was a hundred times better than I could ever have dreamed of. It was perfect timing, the pictures perfectly captured the moment and the emotions, and Jake is perfect. The moment couldn’t have been more wonderful. However, when I had imagined our engagement there was one portion that I hadn’t considered which was, how ugly I am when I cry?
Instantly, I was balling and I am not a pretty crier. But they were tears of absolute joy. I was so surprised and overwhelmed with happiness. And the ring was the one that looked like his original promise ring and I couldn’t be happier that he selected that ring because it is perfect.
While I was crying, Jake remained on his knee and had to ask me again to marry him (which was hilarious) because I was crying so hard but obviously I said, “YES, OF COURSE”.
It seems that women so often have these “proposal day checklist” that include nails done, cute outfit, photos to capture the moment, make it a surprise, etc. And I would never deny that for a long time, that’s what I wanted too. However, over the summer, I realized all I wanted was my family there and to be absolutely surprised. And he successfully managed to surprise me and melt my heart. On our engagement day, my hair had not been washed in days, I wasn’t wearing makeup and my nails weren’t done but that didn’t matter in the slightest. My best friend asked me to marry him. I was surrounded by my family and our dog was apart of the proposal. I could not have imagined a more perfect proposal.
We were able to capture many photos of the moment and our happy, little family in our matching shirts, and (I won’t admit this often but) Jake was so right, it is so much easier to be engaged while you plan a wedding.
