{If you came here in the middle of the story, you may want to start with
Good Friends Make the Best Spouses (Our Story, Part I) first!}
After a few months of courting bliss, it was time for Eric’s dad to arrive (he lived in Colorado at the time; whereas, we are in Virginia). I’d never met him and he was going to stay with Eric for a few weeks and join us for Thanksgiving. He was bringing my engagement ring he had set himself at Eric’s request since he is proficient at working on jewelry.
On our way to North Carolina to see my parents, Eric noticed that I was wearing a ring on my left hand ring finger (something he’d specifically asked me not to do until we were engaged). At the time, I was wearing my college ring that my parents had given me for my birthday during my senior year of college. Realizing that he seriously wanted me to keep that finger bare until he proposed, I took the ring off and let my finger go free until the day came. I thought it would be months before I’d be wearing his ring, but I was in for a surprise.
Eric had almost insisted we visit the beach while we were visiting at my parents’ house. It was November, but you usually don’t have to spend much time convincing me to go to the beach.
When we arrived at my parents’ house, I started inviting everyone to go with us to the beach (which I normally had not done before). Eric held his frustration in and everyone found different excuses to decline. Me, I still had no clue anything was about to happen.
Then, I noticed my dad and Eric were missing. Still, I didn’t have a clue what was going on. It wasn’t until my future father-in-law chased me down the hall and told me that Eric and my Dad didn’t want to be disturbed (they were having the “may I have your daughter’s hand” talk in my old bedroom). Then, it dawned on me what was happening. I was about to be engaged. In our many discussions, I told Eric that I loved water and I would love to be proposed to somewhere around water. How could I have been so blind? Why else would a man who wears a jacket twelve months out of the year want to go to the beach the day before Thanksgiving?!
That night, I was a ball of nerves. I was annoyed that I wouldn’t be as surprised as I had hoped to be and I was worried that I was wrong… and that we’d get to the beach and I’d come home with no ring.
The next morning, Eric was nowhere to be found. It was his second trip to my hometown, so I couldn’t imagine where he could’ve run off to without my directions. Soon, he was back and we were off. We stopped for a quick breakfast and it’s a wonder I was able to swallow it. Eric seemed a bit nervous too (and for those of you who know Eric, he’s almost never nervous). It was a side of him I had not seen before.
We got to the empty beach parking lot, worked our way down to the beach, and put down a blanket to sit on as we watched the ocean roar. He conveniently forgot his camera in the car and turned around to go back and get it. He was only gone for a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity! He returned shortly with two boxes and a card. The outside of the card showed a single rose, and said, “I have a dozen…” and the inside of the card said, “… reasons why.”
He told me that he bought the card years ago and when he saw that card, he was impressed to get it as it would be special for his future. After showing me the card, he opened up a box with twelve roses. As he handed me each rose, he gave me a reason he wanted to marry me, until he had listed a dozen reasons (and yes, I was crying!). Then, he dropped to one knee and popped the question. Of course, I said yes… twice!
Then, he opened the other box which contained heather, the flower after which I was named. Until that day, I’d never seen it in person. I found out later he had to go to great lengths to find that heather – which is why he was gone earlier that morning. Apparently, he found the florist without my help. 🙂 {Eric’s note: Though heather wasn’t in season, I told the florist that if they couldn’t obtain the heather for me to purchase, I would go with another florist as it was for a proposal… so, they got it worked out!} He explained that the reason he chose to propose then is so I could show my ring off the next day, on Thanksgiving, while I was home and we were with a lot of family throughout the day… Eric is always planning and thinking.
When we arrived back home, my mom was teary-eyed and I was bursting at the seams. It seemed as though my dad’s earlier prediction was going to be right: I’d be married the following summer. We went back and forth with the wedding date. We were considering June 11th as it was a Saturday that year, but it would also be my Dad’s 50th birthday. It seemed like using that date would be stealing his limelight, even though those who know him know how much my dad hates exposure like that. We asked him what he thought about it and he told us he had been thinking it would be neat to have us get married on his birthday! {Eric’s note: I told my father-in-law on our wedding day that it was his year of jubilee! ~smile~} So, the plan was born and started turning in motion. We were engaged… and we had a lot of work to do to plan the wedding!
Regardless of the events surrounding your engagement story, take the time to write down and detail your engagement story. You will be happy to have them in the years to come and your kids will love to read them!
What did you think about our detailed engagement story?
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