I have a lot of friends wanting details on my very exciting news I had yesterday, and this seems the easiest way to get a story AND pictures in one spot!
James and I have been dating 9 months now, and had made the decision a few months ago that we were going to live together soon. The time when his lease was going to be up on his 1 bedroom apartment coincided with our 1-year dating anniversary, and after much discussion we decided we didn't want to live an hour apart for another whole year. So we decided that when it came closer to that time, we'd find a bigger place in Lexington..one with enough bedrooms for everyone, and move in together. We kept that decision mostly private for the last few months and just continued to enjoy life. Then, very recently, we started talking about marriage and how we *could* just go ahead and get married if we were going to be living together anyway...I mean, I'm not going to move myself and my children an hour away from our family and move in with a man I just *sort of* love. So we talked about it some, and talked with family about it (got my dad's blessing, teeheee). But then there was still no official proposal. I knew it would be coming soon because we had imagined a late summer wedding.
James said he wanted to go on an overnight date on Saturday and I asked Tabatha to watch the kids. We drove to Lexington and he headed for UK's campus. While he teaches English at UK, I knew we weren't going to get something from his office. The only place we regularly go to at UK is the arboretum. We love to walk around the trails and lay in the grass to cloud watch.
I looked at the temperature reading in his car and it read 95 degrees Fahrenheit. I immediately regretted wearing jeans. He pulled a bag out of the trunk and we walked to our favorite spot that we always cloud watch at. He reached in his bag and pulled out a blanket which he spread on the ground. Out of his pocket came his cell phone. He pressed play and Just Breathe by Pearl Jam (our song) started playing. He got down on one knee said a lot of sweet things that I'll keep just for me, but let's just say I was crying by the time he got around to the big question. He reached behind him and pulled something out of the bag. It was a box from our favorite dessert spot, Gigi's Cupcakes.
When we go there, I usually get the tiramisu cupcake. We go there often enough that James said when he went alone one day, they asked where his girlfriend was! :) But what he pulled out of the box was their wedding cupcake! Sitting half-melted into the 4" of frosting was a wedding ring. (not in this photo because I took these photos after the fact)
I pulled it out of the frosting and put it in my mouth (LOL!) After it was clean, I handed it back to him and he slid it on my finger.
I joined him on the blanket and hugged him, even though it was 95 degrees out and we were both miserably hot. About 2 minutes later he said to me, "Not trying to ruin the moment but I still haven't gotten an answer."--to which, I of course replied, "Yes!"
After the ring was extracted, we had a perfectly good cupcake there waiting for us. We hadn't had dinner yet and I asked him if we should eat it. His reply was, "Of course we can eat dessert before dinner...we are grown-ups afterall!" He decided we needed practice for the wedding and that he was going to smash cupcake in my face:
But what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
Here are a few more pics I took after the fact:
We hung out for awhile, laying on the blanket and cloud watching until we decided it was too hot to go on...we still had a half a mile walk back to the car. The rest of our evening consisted of dinner at Applebee's (not exactly fine dining but it's what I wanted and it was delish!), a movie (Knight and Day---GREAT flick!), and a moonlight swim in the pool at midnight (so romantic!). It really was a fairy tale kind of day--thanks for sharing it with me!
Every photo I tried to take yesterday of the ring came out a bit washed out...I'm guessing because of my white, white hand LOL. So here is a better photo I got today for those who asked:
We're planning a small ceremony around Labor Day weekend here at the house...just a few friends and family, with my uncle (a minister) marrying us...a casual, romantic affair :) Thank you SO SO MUCH for all the well-wishes and congratulations, friends! When I logged into Facebook this morning I had 99 notifications LOL! I'm so happy to share this news with my friends and family. I'm a very lucky, happy girl.
James and I have been dating 9 months now, and had made the decision a few months ago that we were going to live together soon. The time when his lease was going to be up on his 1 bedroom apartment coincided with our 1-year dating anniversary, and after much discussion we decided we didn't want to live an hour apart for another whole year. So we decided that when it came closer to that time, we'd find a bigger place in Lexington..one with enough bedrooms for everyone, and move in together. We kept that decision mostly private for the last few months and just continued to enjoy life. Then, very recently, we started talking about marriage and how we *could* just go ahead and get married if we were going to be living together anyway...I mean, I'm not going to move myself and my children an hour away from our family and move in with a man I just *sort of* love. So we talked about it some, and talked with family about it (got my dad's blessing, teeheee). But then there was still no official proposal. I knew it would be coming soon because we had imagined a late summer wedding.
James said he wanted to go on an overnight date on Saturday and I asked Tabatha to watch the kids. We drove to Lexington and he headed for UK's campus. While he teaches English at UK, I knew we weren't going to get something from his office. The only place we regularly go to at UK is the arboretum. We love to walk around the trails and lay in the grass to cloud watch.
I looked at the temperature reading in his car and it read 95 degrees Fahrenheit. I immediately regretted wearing jeans. He pulled a bag out of the trunk and we walked to our favorite spot that we always cloud watch at. He reached in his bag and pulled out a blanket which he spread on the ground. Out of his pocket came his cell phone. He pressed play and Just Breathe by Pearl Jam (our song) started playing. He got down on one knee said a lot of sweet things that I'll keep just for me, but let's just say I was crying by the time he got around to the big question. He reached behind him and pulled something out of the bag. It was a box from our favorite dessert spot, Gigi's Cupcakes.
When we go there, I usually get the tiramisu cupcake. We go there often enough that James said when he went alone one day, they asked where his girlfriend was! :) But what he pulled out of the box was their wedding cupcake! Sitting half-melted into the 4" of frosting was a wedding ring. (not in this photo because I took these photos after the fact)
I pulled it out of the frosting and put it in my mouth (LOL!) After it was clean, I handed it back to him and he slid it on my finger.
I joined him on the blanket and hugged him, even though it was 95 degrees out and we were both miserably hot. About 2 minutes later he said to me, "Not trying to ruin the moment but I still haven't gotten an answer."--to which, I of course replied, "Yes!"
After the ring was extracted, we had a perfectly good cupcake there waiting for us. We hadn't had dinner yet and I asked him if we should eat it. His reply was, "Of course we can eat dessert before dinner...we are grown-ups afterall!" He decided we needed practice for the wedding and that he was going to smash cupcake in my face:
But what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
Here are a few more pics I took after the fact:
We hung out for awhile, laying on the blanket and cloud watching until we decided it was too hot to go on...we still had a half a mile walk back to the car. The rest of our evening consisted of dinner at Applebee's (not exactly fine dining but it's what I wanted and it was delish!), a movie (Knight and Day---GREAT flick!), and a moonlight swim in the pool at midnight (so romantic!). It really was a fairy tale kind of day--thanks for sharing it with me!
Every photo I tried to take yesterday of the ring came out a bit washed out...I'm guessing because of my white, white hand LOL. So here is a better photo I got today for those who asked:
We're planning a small ceremony around Labor Day weekend here at the house...just a few friends and family, with my uncle (a minister) marrying us...a casual, romantic affair :) Thank you SO SO MUCH for all the well-wishes and congratulations, friends! When I logged into Facebook this morning I had 99 notifications LOL! I'm so happy to share this news with my friends and family. I'm a very lucky, happy girl.
