My Fairytale

Engaged…ENGAGED. 

This year for my New Year’s Resolution word (I chose a word every year to try and work on—last year it was active) I chose engaged, apparently it was more than fitting.

I AM ENGAGED Y’ALL!

In my last post I told you I was coming home to see my family for a short trip to The Sip. Well, little did I know that my fantastic, super, amazing, marvelous boyfriend would soon become my fantastic, super, amazing, marvelous fiancé!

If you’re anything like me, you want all the details. So here you go:

Joe and I have talked about getting married before—we looked at rings, he asked my daddy, researched venues, set a date—all we were waiting on was time and money! At least that’s what I thought anyway. 

I am basically an investigator when it comes to surprises or presents. I am notorious for “shaking the box”. I almost always guess/know out what my gifts are by putting little things together. Well, I was figuratively shaking the box one weekend in January about Joe’s proposal plans (he admitted to discussing them with my mom and best friend, Audriana) and he told me that I had indeed guessed his plans..he is an awful liar and it really looked like he was telling the truth! He told me that his plan was to do it in late April while we were camping. 

To be honest, I was a little bummed by the fact that I had actually guessed and he told me. :( I hadn’t thought about how I would feel figuring it out. But I knew that there were lots of details I didn’t actually know and that I would have to be okay with what I did know.

Fast forward to Valentine’s Day. My sister called me and asked if I had used my manicure gift certificate she had gotten me for Christmas, my best friend asked if I thought Joe was going to pop the question, my mom told me she would keep the volume on her cell phone on all night in case I called to tell her the big news. I knew Joe had talked to my mom and Audriana about his plans so I thought they were trying to tip me off!

Turns out, they weren’t. 

No ring on my finger after that night! But what I did receive was a plane ticket home, with Joe!

I was so beyond ecstatic, I cried my eyes out. What an incredible gesture! Joe knew how much I was missing my sweet family and bought us tickets to go see them—just for a weekend!

Joe asked me a few nights before our trip what I was planning on wearing on the flight. (I'm sorry, what?) I thought that was a strange question since we had to leave my apartment at 3:30am to catch the flight at 6:00am. I told him “my black skinny jeans and my minnie mouse sweatshirt. Why?” He then asked “Are you going to wear make-up?” I gave him a really offended look and said “probably NOT”…He then told me that he just felt really grown up flying with me and he had decided to wear his khaki jeans and his blue flannel button-down....He looks really nice in this outfit—so I told him I guessed I would “dress up” as well so I didn’t look like a bum next to him. So, I got up at 2:30am on Friday to take a shower, fix my hair, and put on makeup. We packed our bags and were on our way!

I was feeling extra lovey on our flights—just something about traveling with Joe to see my family felt so special. We talked about how we couldn’t wait to be married and he said “it will be sooner than you think!” Which I took as a “it will be here before you know it” type saying—and I agreed because February just snuck up on me and passed right by! 

I then told him he should just do it while I was home and use my mom’s mom’s (yes, my grandmother, but I never knew her because she died when my mom was 19 and I don’t really know what I would’ve called her so it seems weird to say anything at all) ring that barely fits my pinkie finger just so we could hurry along the planning. ;) He laughed and said “oh yeah? You want me to?” I shook my head and told him “ No, I don’t. I want you to do it whenever you feel the time is right.”  

I didn’t know that time was just a few hours away! 

About halfway through our flight Joe told me that he used to really hate airplanes. I asked him why and he said it’s because they used to take me away from him. (I have flown home quite a few times in our relationship and once for a long trip when we had only been dating for 2 months) He then let me know that now he loves them, because they bring our two families together. I just about cried when he said that. It was the sweetest sentiment—and he knew that.

We were just about to get off the plane and my mom sends Joe a text. I asked him “what’s my momma saying” and he said “nothing”…..even though I could clearly see she had sent him quite a few messages. I thought that was weird and then he even said “I’m nervous!” which he quickly tried to recover by saying “I haven’t seen your parents in a long time”—but that wasn’t true because both of them had been out to see us within the last two months....At this point, I knew something was up. It was just the completely wrong “something”. I thought that my mom was just going to surprise me in the airport when we were walking through. 

Boy was I wrong!

Joe and I are walking hand in hand to baggage claim in the Memphis Airport. We get to the round center where concourse B splits into two parts—those of your who have ever flown Delta from Memphis should know where I’m referring to. (It has the beautiful blue ceiling and is surrounded by the Elvis Store, Starbucks, the Harley Shop, and a few other places.) Well we stop short and he pulls me to him and tells me to wait a second and kinda looks around. I assumed it’s because my mom was meeting us there or she was in sight and he wanted it to be a surprise.

Well at this point Joe says to me again “I know how important the airport is to you, and how much it will be to us, so I have something to ask you.”

He turns around and grabs something out of his backpack—and as he does, he kneels to the ground and opens a jewelry box. 

He asks “Will you Marry Me?” 

Apparently, I didn’t say yes at first, I just squealed and covered my mouth with my hands! haha! I tried to hug him but he was still kneeling—I remembered to say yes and put out my hand (to which he tried to put it on the wrong one…haha) and then when he stood up I was crying and hugging him and the people in the shops were cheering and telling me congratulations! I said thanks to them and gave him a kiss and cried some more. 

While in his arms and wiping my eyes, he tells me to “look over there”. It is my momma and she was filming the whole thing on her phone! I go to give her a hug and my sister comes running toward me with a camera in her hands. Both of them were on their lunch break and playing photographer while watching the whole thing unfold. People passing by gave me hugs and told me how romantic and sweet Joe was and congratulations. 

It was such a neat feeling knowing that people could see the love we shared even if just for a moment. We made our way to get our bags as fiancés, (eek! J) and Audriana picked me up. We called all of our family and close friends and let them know the big news! 

There is actually still a LOT to tell from that day--but the rest will have to wait until the next blog post! I hope you all enjoyed reading about how sweet my fiancé is! ;) 

xoxo