He Liked It, So He Put a Ring On It

Karen, you simply HAVE to tell us everything that happened with the proposal, how did he do it….how did you react, was it super romantic?  Well, I suppose it\’s the least I can do for you.

Our engagement technically started January 26, 2012.  JANUARY?  You are probably thinking:  \”It\’s been over a month, how did you not tell us!!\”  Chill out let me explain.

First of all, it wasn\’t really a surprise to anyone in my family that we got engaged.  All of my siblings are married/will be married in 2 weeks.  Evan and I have been together longer then all of them.  Yes, Evan was around when both my brothers met their wives and even knew my sister\’s ex before she married her now-husband.  He\’s been there and seen them all get married, yet we stayed strong.  After all, Evan is 3.5 years younger than me and in all seriousness, we are in slightly different life locations.  I work an 8-5 job and he is still a student (although he is almost done! December 2012! Huzzah!)  No rush to go and get married.  Not that he didn\’t want to.  We first talked about the possibility of getting married in March and I said it would seem to rushed.  This was still the time when I was applying to PhD programs and had no idea where I would be the next year.  Thankfully, I stayed in Austin and around June/July-ish he informed me of his intention to propose to me.  He wanted to do it in October, around our 2 year anniversary.  I basically told him no.  My little sister got married October 17 and had a beautiful baby girl in November and I didn\’t want to have our engagement be lumped in with the other important events in my family.  So he waited until January 26.

He took me to a wine bar (Uncorked to be specific.  Super delicious by the way).  We each got a wine flight and ate steak just enjoying each other\’s company.  We started talking about the future and how he wanted to propose and that he had wanted to since last March basically and wanted to know how I felt about being proposed to without a ring.  Evan is still a poor college student, after all.  Ultimately, I said it didn\’t matter.  The marriage is more important than the wedding and the ring is a symbol of something intangible.  As soon as we got back to my house we got out of the car and I hugged him and I asked.  \”Are you nervous?  Your hearts beating really fast.  I can hear it\”.  \”Yes, I am\” and he got down on one knee and in the middle of my driveway asked me to marry him.  Now of course, this made me freak out a little bit and I wasn\’t sure what to say.  I mean I love this man, but marriage?  I don\’t know about all that.  I don\’t know if I could even live up to my own standards of marriage.  I don\’t know if our love is \”good enough\” to do something as extreme as get married.  That and I really had to go to the bathroom.  He claims I gave him a tentative yes after much coaxing.  I don\’t know if that\’s true.  He asked for my father\’s blessing that night and about a week later I announced it to my family and a few close friends.

Now, I still hadn\’t put it on Facebook, something I didn\’t want to do until I had a ring, if I was to get one at all. I thought it would be cool to announce our engagement on Leap day because we are taking the biggest leap of our lives!  He went out and got a ring and re-proposed on February 29, in my bedroom and I said yes.  So now it\’s official.  We are engaged.  I have a ring and a bunch of Facebook congratulations to prove it.