Most of you already know that it's time to semi-retire my sequined skirt. Assuming a new identity is almost like starting a new job. You're still the same you, and yet it's different.
Against all blogging advice, I'm going to try and keep my two personas separate and unmet. I've shared some things here that won't make it over there. And I won't lie - it's kind of fun to get a proverbial 'clean slate.'
Thank you for all your love and support for pink sequins. Without you, I wouldn't have had the confidence to put myself up for the new challenge. Knowing you were there reading, commenting, and encouraging kept me honest and posting every day. I appreciate you more than you know. With all of my pink sequined heart, thank you.
With happy tears, it's time to sign off. If you want to know where I've landed, feel free to hit me up on email and I'll be happy to share my new adventure with you!
The sparkly wine went straight to my head and I cannot get my thoughts together to post about our venue search like I had planned to do today. Please forgive me, I'm a lightweight.
I'll reveal the surprise soon, and you can safely assume that we're not expecting - lol! It's amazing how many people make that leap when there's news to share :)
Post-proposal, we headed back home to start our normal Friday - except now we were ENGAGED! Yay!
Remember my man-gagement present? Well, so much time had elapsed since we bought it and in the flurry of excitement in proposing, Mr. PS forgot that now he could wear his watch. Double yay!
* personal photo *
Notifying the parental units was the very next order of business. I'm originally from Ohio, and my parents still live there. Because of the distance, Mr. PS placed a call earlier in the week to ask them for their blessing. Such a gentleman! As Mr. PS tells the story, Poppa PS questioned "are you sure?" and then said "good luck with that." What a joker.
As I mentioned before, I've had a prior engagement (or two). My parents knew of Mr. PS's upcoming proposal and instead of the expected phone call I decided to send flowers to announce our engagement, hoping to bring in an element of surprise.
Momma PS received the flowers and did what any proud mother would do - she posted a photo on my Facebook wall for all the world to see.
* personal photo *
Oh crap! I saw it during a business lunch and could not call her fast enough. Delete! Delete! Delete! Mr. PS had not yet told his family, and we planned to host a dinner with them at our favorite local restaurant the next evening. That picture had to go, and STAT. I'm friends with Mr. PS's siblings and we didn't want to ruin the surprise. After a quick scramble, she figured out how to erase the evidence. Could Momma PS keep it a secret for another 24 hours?
Um, in a word - no. To her credit, she lasted almost 20 before she posted it on her own wall. Sneaky, sneaky mom. My extended family started peppering my FB with congratulations. Sadly, I deleted each one as it came in and dinner could not come soon enough.
Somehow Mr. PS and I managed to keep our engagement under wraps until dinner. Mr. PS's brother came down from the Bay area and his sister and family traveled 3 hours to be there. His other BIL speculated that someone was either pregnant or engaged. We maintained our poker faces.
Finally after we had all eaten, Mr. PS made the announcement and my ring found it's rightful place back on my finger. Whew! I'm a terrible liar and felt relieved to reveal our secret.
FMIL PS inspecting the goods
* personal photo *
Engagement watch and FMIL PS tearing up
* personal photo *
It's officially official!
* personal photo *
We gave our families a little engagement drama and those stories bring back a flood of excited anticipation as we spread the love...
How did you decide to share the news of your engagement with your families? Share your experience with me, did you receive any unique or unexpected responses?
If you type "marriage proposal" into a google search, you'll get back more that 5.5 million hits. And if you are a gal that really wants to get hitched, waiting tests even the strongest will.
I am embarrassed to admit it, but I was that girl. Starting to feel more than a little impatient, did I just need to go ahead with it myself?
Okay, maybe that's crazy talk. But, c'mon. I picked out the ring already. Then again, we agreed it would happen by the end of the year and it was only. . . August. Ugh.
To this point, you must be thinking that our story seems fairly typical of an impending proposal. Except our marriage plans required us to factor in one slight complication - a major surgery that Mr. PS was facing, pun completely intended. You may have noticed in photos I've shared of Mr. PS that his face droops a bit on one side and his right eye is larger than his left.
post-surgery
* personal photo *
It took six years and as many doctors to diagnose Mr. PS with a very rare condition where a small benign tumor was growing in his auditory canal. It caused incremental paralysis on the right side of his face and the best treatment required a craniotomy and potential severing of his facial nerve.
Blue ink indicates the location of Mr. PS's tumor
* personal photo *
Thankfully the tumor wasn't life threatening and Mr. PS could wait a month or a decade to go in for surgery. I preferred to delay until after our wedding to be "wife" instead of "girlfriend." These thoughts came over as residual from my military days where a non-spouse held no validity as a partner. I also felt I could provide continual care as his wife using the Family Medical Leave Act if necessary.
The more he thought about it, Mr. PS wanted that sucker out of his head sooner rather than later. I felt torn. What if? What if? What if?
I decided that his health and want to take care of it trumped planning a wedding, so I declared a moratorium on marriage talk until after the surgery. The whole ordeal stressed me out and I couldn't process both life events simultaneously.
I'm very lucky that Mr. PS disagreed with my plan. He had the ring for a month already and was trying to decide how best to propose. Let's cue some music to set the stage:
It was early on a Friday morning. Feeling melancholy, I woke Mr. PS to tell him that I loved him and wanted to marry him more than any other want in the world. I would wait as long as it took to get through the surgery and back to our normal, and I wanted him to be my husband and father to our children regardless.
Not knowing that he had the ring all this time, he suggested we go for a walk on the beach. "Now?!" I said, surprised. Mr. PS rarely went for an early morning walk with me. We got dressed in sweats and ventured the short walk to our local beach. I didn't register it at the time, but he chose to wear the same clothes as our first date beach walk.
It was foggy and quiet at 7am on that fall morning. No one was around except for a flock of seagulls. We walked silently hand in hand for about half a mile when Mr. PS gently held me in a hug and positioned me to face the ocean.
Then he got down on one knee. What?! Is this really happening? Right now?! After all this time waiting for this moment, oh crap. Am I ready for this?
With tears in his eyes, he told me how much he loved me. That he wasn't perfect and he had his flaws, and still he wanted to know if I would spend the rest of my life with him.
I started laughing and crying at the same time. My eyes flutter when I'm nervous and Mr. PS says that he thought I was going to pass out. He asked me if I was okay. I nodded and said yes! If I could write it in the sky I would - YES!
We didn't have a camera with us that morning to capture a photo. But the proposal is burned into my memory and perhaps that's where it's best kept for me.
I'll still have to tell you how we shared the news with our families and celebrated together that night at a fancy schmancy restaurant. For now, here's a photo of me and my pretty ring near the spot where Mr. PS proposed.
* personal photo *
In what ways was your engagement similar or different? Did you have a long waiting period? When your beloved proposed, was it just the two of you? Or did it include family, friends, or a more public display of affection?
A few weeks after choosing my e-ring [backstory here], Mr. PS and I vacationed in Cabo. My bestie speculated that a proposal might be in the works, but I knew it was probably too soon.
Nevertheless, we had the best vacation ever! Surfing, sunning, and relaxing were the only activities on the agenda...
Land's End at El Arco
Reading my Kindle at Zippers beach
and I get to practice my surf photography!
yet there's still plenty of time to 'get wet'
Mission accomplished. I'll admit only ONE mistake than thankfully ended happily. Suckered into a timeshare presentation, we spent precious surfing time at non-existent hotel property so we could get the freebies - a jet ski excursion, glass bottom boat ride...you know the drill.
Seriously, hard hats required!
This was the first and only time I think Mr. PS wanted to shake sense into my head, haha! Four hours later we cried "never again!" and with vouchers in hand made haste to the nearest beach.
One coupon claimed $100 credit at Diamonds International jewelry store. If you're a skeptic like me, you'll appreciate the need to adventure in to see what you can buy for a benjamin. And just as I suspected, there was nothing. But....
As luck would have it, Mr. PS fell in LOVE with a watch in the case. I lapped all the displays twice as he OOHHed and AAHHed over this timepiece. It had all the features he wanted and was unlike any in his collection. He couldn't take it off and wouldn't stop gazing at its beauty. Alas, he sighed that he couldn't buy it because he was saving for my ring.
Aha! Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Exactly. I offered to buy the watch for Mr. PS with the condition that he could wear it once we were properly engaged. If I get to wear a sparkly ring, what's to say that Mr. PS can't sport an engagement watch?! In fact, the more I thought about it, it only seemed fair that he should have some bling to show off as well. Plus, the devil on my shoulder couldn't help but think it could be incentive. A little bribery never hurt, right?
Apparently and unbeknownst to me, man-gagement presents are all the rage. There's a post from Mrs. Nachos about the man-gagement watch she gifted her DH here. And, Mrs. Hot Cocoa raises the bar with a man-gagement ring. Very cool.
So we left Cabo with sun-kissed skin, lots of rest, and a gorgeous watch that Mr. PS would have to wait four months to wear. Which really only meant that I had to continue to wait (sometimes not so patiently) for my Tiffany treasure.
Doesn't he look happy and handsome?
What do you think about gifting your beloved to commemorate the engagement? What did or would you choose to present?
ps. In a special Saturday installment, I'll post the final part of our engagement story. Mr. PS gets down on one knee, yay!
