Engaged!

0Drew • 14th Feb 2009 • Blog • Life, Personal

Today I bring great news! I’m engaged! Actually, the big day was February 10th, 2009.

So, here’s the story, in all its glory. I tried to do something that would be remembered and told on to our kids (when we decided to have one, or two, or four, of course!).

The lucky girl is Christie, but that’s what she says; I’m the really lucky one here.

So, this is how it starts. I basically made reservations for a place in Sundance Square, Fort Worth, for a nice Mexican dinner, at Cantina Loredo. First off, I just want to say, this place is awesome, very good Mexican food. Back on track now, so I made the reservations and gave her my card and told her to get a nice dress, shoes and whatever else she wanted for a special night out, as we were going somewhere nice. Little did she know what would happen that night, just dinner, you know.

So she went out, bought a dress, new shoes, some earrings, etc etc (girls, you know, and I’m sure most people reading a post that says “Engaged”, are going to be girls). So a few weeks later, was the big day, February 10th. Forecast: Strong thunderstorms and possible tornadoes. Great! So, despite the weather, I told her that nothing would ruin this night, for anything. So, I drove us, it sprinkled, but nothing too bad, besides traffic, and we finally arrive. There was a nice calm breeze and so we walk into the restaurant.

Little did she know, I made reservations for a horse carriage ride that night for 8pm, which is why I made dinner reservations for dinner at 6:30. Well, let’s say that dinner was GREAT, however, we finished at about 7:10pm and I had to find a way to kill 50 minutes. So, even though I didn’t want it, I ordered a huge chocolate cake. We at about 1/3 of it. I still had 20 minutes to kill. Finally at around 7:50pm or so, I finally gave into going for a walk with her; the weather was still good. So we walked up the street, and at of the corner of my eye, I saw the horse carriage going towards the restaurant. Luckily, she didn’t see it, and she started complaining that it was too windy (she was in a dress), and it was quite windy at the time, so I played it off and just told her we could walk in the opposite direction. At this time, the horse carriage was in front of the restaurant. So we approached it, and I held her hand and told her that this was part of the date. Her smile lit up the town! So, I helped her into the carriage, put my arm around her, and we just stared at the night sky, talked a little, and whispered sweet nothings as we rode along for about 30 minutes. Little did she know I have previously spoken to the horse carriage company previously about working out a way to distract her (Christie) so that I could romantically propose. So, the horse carriage stopped around the Forth Worth Water Gardens, which is a very nice park with a beautiful water garden, however they told us that they had to repair one of the lights on the carriages for “safety reasons”. Nice. Of course it happened, Christie being Christie. “What’s broken? Can we just stay here and wait? What is going on?”. Yeah. That’s Christie for ya! So, I told her not to worry about it and that the park was nice and that it was our night to spend together, and that we should just take a walk. So, we walked around the stone side of the water garden and then I started basically pouring my heart out telling her how much I love her and how much has changed since day one, and how much we have grown with each other. Then beneath the moonlight, I took her hand, and we danced. Nothing crazy, just a romantic slow dance. I then wrapped my arms around her, told her how I really felt and that everything that night was because of how much I love her. I then hit one knee to the ground. Looked up, pulled a ring out, and asked her if she would be my wife.

She said yes!

Well, kind of. She said “Baby, baby, baby…”. She couldn’t stop stuttering “baby”, but it was adorable and I know that was “yes”. Then out of no where, there was lightning and thunder everywhere. See, I knew we were meant to be! I then walked us back to the carriage where they asked us how it went and, of course, Christie shows the ring off and says “So, the light’s not really broken is it”; there was laughter. I had some chocolates and a dozen roses waiting for her at the carriage when we got back into the carriage. We then rode around back to the restaurant for about 10 minutes while it just kept lightning the whole time, sometimes very bright. We got back to the restaurant and then drip, drop. No rain yet, but it sure was trying. So we walked as fast as we could to the car, and we left.

I pulled out of the parking garage, turned on the GPS, and was ready to get home and beat this storm. That didn’t end up happening. We hit smack dab in the middle of a hail storm, and then we drove through a small town and saw all the road lights and gas station lights flicker and go in and out. Scary stuff! About 30 minutes into the drive, I started noticing that all the streets that the GPS stated we were crossing, were the wrong streets. We were in the middle of basically nowhere, doing twists and turns, yet the GPS said that we were on 635. Right. I rebooted the GPS and it resynced. We should have been close to home, but we basically circled Forth Worth’s back roads.

We finally arrived in Plano, and we stopped at Christie’s dad’s house so she could pick up a few things and show her dad her ring. He was actually quite happy and ended up taking a few pictures of us dressed up.

No matter how it went in my head or imagined how it would be, it never came close to what I had ever imagined. The feeling of actually proposing; nervousness, excitement, and disbelief (in a good way). Some things you just can’t plan for and it goes by so fast. It was the best day ever and I can finally say that I know I’m in love and that I’ve never felt quite this complete. Here’s to the rest of my life and whatever comes Christie and my way.

P.S.: We plan on sending out our RSVPs soon, and the wedding will be around the end of May 2010.