It has been one whole month since the biggest surprise of my life happened! A whirlwind of a month- enjoying this season and starting to plan has been so much fun. For those that missed it...I'm engaged!
We have set a date, booked our venue and photographer, and now we’re nailing down final colors (aka the terracotta-mixed-with-greenery-and-springy-pinks-wedding-of-my-dreams).
We have just short of a year before we say “I do”, but I wanted to write about our engagement 1.) so I never forget and 2.) of course I’m going to document the whole process!
Since I never formally introduced Damon to the blog (whoops- it’s been a minute), here is what you need to know.
He’s the most genuine guy you will meet. His sense of humor matches mine, but sometimes I’m funnier. He cares about his family and friends. He encourages me to do my best and he listens when I’m upset. He loves disc golf, his truck, his crocs, sushi and steak, a good t-shirt, and me. Most importantly, he’s kind and good and okay okay okay enough sap.
We don’t necessarily have an “official” anniversary date because the first time he asked me to be his girlfriend I said no. He was so nervous, it was cute. I poked too much at him about it so he never asked me “officially” again ha! We dated the entire summer of 2019 and he met my parents in August of that year, so we say the official date is somewhere around then. I put him through the ringer in the beginning, but that story is for a different day.
As cheeseball as it sounds, we both knew about 6 months in that this was it. It was gettin’ serious. Almost a year into dating we started talking about marriage and what that meant to each of us. I laid it all out there and made sure he knew some of my engagement *ahem* wants? Expectations? Whichever way you name it- I wanted his proposal to be a surprise, not in public, and there be pictures. He would probably say there were way more checklist items tossed his way. Regardless, he pulled it off so well.
Here's the tea:
February 24th was just your average Wednesday. I got home from work and he met me at my apartment. We planned dinner at his parents house which was nothing out of the ordinary. Damon usually works 2 weeks out of town and 2 weeks at home, so when he is home we make a “world tour” to each of our fam’s for visits. I decided not to change into my comfies (praise- this was a miracle!) and we left just a few minutes later.
We told his mom we would bring dessert and I had an entire baked pear recipe picked out and needed to stop at Aldi’s to get some ingredients. He never broke a sweat y’all! He was so patient and let me walk up and down every aisle in the store. Looking back, I know my lollygagging was eating him up inside!
We got back into his truck and we were on the way. He never acted weird or odd the entire time. We listened to music the whole way there and talked. I didn't suspect a thing.
Once we were at his parents house, he was a little slow getting out of the truck. I was SO hungry, I went ahead of him a little up the stairs to get inside. This is where things just lined up perfectly.
I’m never the first one inside when it’s the two of us, but that day I decided to open the door and walk in. His mom came out to greet us and give me a hug at the door- again, not out of the norm. She said “Hi Leianna!” and then I saw movement behind her...
I thought it was his dad surprising us (he was out of town for work), but I squinted and realized it was MY dad, mom, and bestie Sam. They had been cued to come out of the hallway by her greeting. It all hit me. I heard the Aldi’s bag hit the floor and I spun around to him on one knee.
COMPLETE shock! I can’t remember a single word he said in those first ten seconds. He finally said “so will you?” and I spit out a “yes!” and quickly snagged the ring out of the box like he was going to take it back!
My best friend Laura, who is also a photographer, popped out and captured the whole thing from start to finish. He pulled this off so well! They had all known for a couple of weeks and coordinated everything down to parking their cars at the park and carpooling over so nothing would tip me off.
Laura captured it all!
Looking back, I still cannot pinpoint a single moment where I would’ve picked up on something. I’m going to let you in on my crazy- I had set up two venue tours *before* we were engaged and he went right along with it. This is where I should’ve suspected something ha!
I knew we would be engaged within this year, but never thought it would happen when it did. I’m so grateful for him and the time he took to plan this out to make it special. I’m looking forward to these next 11 months and what they have in store for us!
