Chapter Four* …Holy Toot! I’m Engaged!!

Whenever I ask to hear about someone else’s proposal story, or even when someone asks to hear mine, the story always seems to end at “Will you marry me?”. Of course that’s when all the suspense and waiting ends and when (I hope) the happily ever after begins.

But I think there is always a little more to a proposal story… I’m always interested to know what happens after he (or she) has popped the question. Did he drop you off at home with a wave and say, “see you at the chapel”? Or was the proposal only the beginning of a wonderful evening together?

You see, what happened after the Hubster proposed to me is one of my favourite parts of this story, and I don’t think it would be complete if I left it out. So, after 2 weeks of making you wait…

This is the story of how the Hubster and I met, fell in love and were married within 8 months…

….and lived happily ever after*

Like most newly engaged women the minute that my new beautiful sparkly engagement ring was on my finger I couldn’t take my eyes off it. I stared at it as we walked back to the car. I stared at it in the car. I stared at it as we walked back into my little house. And suddenly it dawned on me– I no longer had a boyfriend. I had a fiancée.

…so what now? Inside I was a huge jumble of emotions. What would change? How would people react? Would our relationship change drastically? Would I change? Would he change? And then, as if he was reading my thoughts, he pulled me into a huge hug and asked me the most normal thing in the world:

“Do you want to play Connect Four?”

I laughed and pulled out the board from underneath the couch. Connect Four was our game… I’ve loved it since childhood and he loved letting me beat him every once in a while. It was like putting everything on hold for a minute while I digested the fact that I was getting married!!!!! Even though we had discussed it, and I knew I wanted to marry him, it’s always different when the ring is slipped onto your finger and it becomes official.

So, we sat on the floor in our nice clothes and played Connect Four on my coffee table. I think I lost because I was paying more attention to my new ring instead of the game. :) We started talking about our plans and how we would tell people. It was already past 10:30pm, and even though I wanted to tell my family first, I didn’t feel it was right to say something like that over the phone, especially considering that I was leaving to see them first thing in the morning.

After it became clear that playing a “serious” game of Connect Four was not going to happen, we went up to my room as my roommates started arriving home. He pulled out his camera and I hand modeled my ring (for posterity, of course) and we made our first official decision–we wanted to get married on August 20th.

By this point I was BUSTING to tell someone my news. So, I put some soft music on the computer and told two of the people I love most in the world–Material Girl and Spatula Head. I made them promise not to tell too many people until I had told my family, but they both FREAKED out. It was amazing. And I was secretly relieved that they didn’t criticize or tell me I was crazy for saying yes after only 2 months. They were just happy for me. And I love them for that.

After finally telling someone else about my new finacée (a term I horrendously overused the next few weeks… haha) we lay down together and talked about our future. Amidst my feelings of excitement and nervousness about this change, I felt an overwhelming sense of peace and I knew without any doubt that I had made the right decision by saying yes.

I don’t know how long we lay there, but eventually he had to leave as he had to work early the next morning, and I had to leave to be with my family. I didn’t want him to leave… I knew that I wouldn’t see him for nearly a week and I was dreading it. However, as he was about to go, “I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You” by Elvis Presley started playing and he turned and held out his hand to me. I took it, and he pulled me to my feet. There in my little room, we danced together in the soft blue glow of my little ocean lamp, and for 2 minutes the whole world stopped and it was just us. We eventually chose it as our wedding song to recapture and remember how we felt in that moment.

As the song ended we walked to the door and he held me in his arms. Just as he was leaving he leaned in my ear and said,

“I love you, Shop Girl. My financé!”

I love you too, Hubster. xo

Shop Girl*