Thursday, January 28, 2016

our engagement story

11.14.15
Best Day Ever


Starting back on October 3rd Stephen and I has just finished a meeting with a bride + groom for their upcoming wedding. We were at the outdoor mall and Stephen casually suggested we go and look at engagement rings. To me, this was amazing but totally out of the blue. I mean we had spoken about getting married but never did I think it would happen soon. We browsed 4 or 5 jewelry stores (i got on a roll!) to see what kinda of rings I liked. I had originally told Stephen I liked the stacked look rather that one solitaire diamond, his response: heck no! that means I have to buy you multiple! 

A few days later I had to fly to Canada for my grandfathers funeral. Leaving in an unorganized mess I left my work calendar at home. Sneaky little Stephen took it upon himself to look over my calendar and see that Saturday November 14th was my only open Saturday for the rest of the year. When retuning home he had told me to keep the 14th open, he had something special planned! I at first was excited, a surprise?! However this is the middle of my busiest season yet and I had actually scheduled a client that evening. Stephen quickly said to reschedule! The whole day was supposed to be kept open.  Thats all he said! 

As we approach the day, Stephen lets me know Ryan + Michelle, our good friends, were joining in on my surprise! Stephen and Ryan were going to surprise the girls together! How exciting! Well Michelle wins actress of the year because I truly believed she had no idea what was happening.... little did I know. 

The week leading up to the 14th Stephen tells me to pick out a nice outfit. I laid a few outfits out on the bed for him to choose, he didn't like any of them. So naturally I went shopping and bought a fabulous dress! Skip to the morning of the 14th, I am self tanning certain body parts for my dress, doing my making up and Stephen walks in the room: "be ready by 12 and plan B you don't need a dress you need jeans + boots!" WHAT! I'm confused! Not my dress I just spent all week finding?

Ryan + Michelle showed up at the house (dressed in jeans + boots!) and we head up north to the middle of the desert. A million things are running through my head... is he leaving me in the desert?! We pull over on the side of the road, jump out of the truck annnnnnd horses!! We are going horse back riding! 

2 hours into our ride Michelle has to pee! I think nothing of it, I have to pee all the time. The boys ride ahead and we stay behind for a few minutes to take care of business. Once we catch up to the boys we have reached a creek that leads to a waterfall. The boys are gone. No where. The tour guide said the boys have already ventured to the waterfall and if we just follow the creek on foot and we will find them. All I can think is, of course they went without us! I mean why would they wait?!?!

As I start walking my  I see a huge photo of.... LEVI! Hanging in the tree! Under the photo it said, "will" next was a huge photo of COORS hanging and it said "you". As I continue down the path I see the final poster and all of a sudden start balling, a huge photo of SOFIA hanging holding a sign that said "marry daddy?". I continue around there corner and Stephen is in front of the waterfall on one knee! 

Take a look at how it played out:


It was honestly the perfect surprise! Stephen had been planing for months and I had no idea! I know you are probably wondering about my fabulous dress I bought?! Well after the horse back ride we went home to "freshen up" and my dress was on the bed surrounded by a dozen red roses!!! Off to dinner we went and SURPRISE again, two more of our best couple friends were waiting at the restaurant for us. I was so shocked!! Stephen had truly thought of everything! (unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the night, I was on too much of a high to thinking about snapping a photo!)


the ring: I have gotten so many questions about the ring because it is not a traditional ring. Like I stated before I had originally liked the stacked look of many bands instead of one solitaire diamond. When we were in the jewelry stores I tired on a few traditional rings and didn't love any of them. I have really long skinny fingers (Stephen calls them ET hands!) so everything just didn't look right. When we tried on the more stacked look thats when I fell in love! When Stephen proposed he surprised me with 3 bands to stack! 1 from him, 1 from Sofia, and 1 from the pups. I am still playing around with which order I want to stack the rings, each day I choose something different. Below is a close up!


We also have a video from the special day thank you to the wonderful owners of MTM Ranch who helped Stephen make this whole surprise go off perfectly!

3 comments:

Cashmere& Camo said...

Such a beautiful story! Congrats and love your ring(s)!

Vicki said...

What a perfect engagement story!!! I especially love the photo of Sofia with the "marry daddy?" sign! Such an incredible way to include her! Congratulations!!!

Lisa C said...

Congrats!! Such a beautiful proposal!!