May 5th 2013- Our Engagement Story

I have always thought about/dreamed about how I would get engaged.

First it was imagining everything down to who it would be (Ryan Gosling was definitely in the running :P). Then I met Ben 8 years ago, and after almost a year of knowing him (and almost 4 months into us dating) I knew he was the one.

After that I just imagined how he would propose. Some of my ideas were elaborate, many of them simple. I never told him anything about this though, because I knew he wanted to do it his own way, without hints from me;)

I'm not going to lie, I knew it was coming sometime this year. We have been dating for 7 years now, we were finally in a decent place financially, and we had already been talking about a fall wedding.

Despite all of this, he still managed to catch me by surprise. His plan involved help from quite a few of my friends, all of whom managed to keep a straight face whenever they saw/talked to me that week. Ben knew that I would suspect something if he himself suggested going on an outing somewhere. He had my friends invite us out to Mooney's Bay, under the pretence that my friend Brittany's sister was competing in the Cheo Children's hospital race taking place that Sunday. I said yes, but I was less than enthusiastic about getting up early on Sunday to make it out there. Ben acted all for it, even suggesting we get up early all week and start going for runs together (I should have known something was up!) Sunday morning arrived, we were up early and out the door by 9 am. My friends had mentioned going for a picnic by the water after the race, so we loaded up the wicker picnic basket and plastic cutlery. I brought the camera because we love taking pictures of nature. Nothing seems out of the ordinary for me.

Ben kept wanting to stop at the store on the way there to get some food for the picnic, but I kept refusing saying I'd rather coordinate with my friends so we knew what everyone would want. (Then my friend Jessica texted me saying they were at the grocery store, so I figured problem solved!) Of course I didn't know that the picnic was going to be for just us two after he proposed, so I ruined that part! Once we were there and parked, Ben started leading me towards the waterfalls, further and further away from the parking lot. I kept asking him why we were going so far away, because how would our friends find us? He kept assuring me that it was fine, meanwhile Jessica texted me that they were on their way. We followed a path through the woods for a minute of two until we came to a clearing right by the water. We settled on the rocks and Ben and I started taking pictures.

Then my phone rang. It was my friend Morgan, telling me to check Instagram because her son Paul wanted to show me something. Earlier that week Paul had gotten an Instagram account (which I thought was cute, but didn't know that it was for a specific reason) and Morgan would help him post random pictures that he took. So I log in to check and see that the first photo is Paul standing by the window with a smile on his face, holding a sign that said "Hi Rachael!".

It was adorable. And I thought that was it. I tried calling Morgan back but there was no answer. I showed Ben the photo, and he said, "Are you sure that's it?" So I hit the refresh button and sure enough, more and more photos began loading of Paul holding signs with messages to me.

At this point I was still thinking that this was just Paul letting me know he missed me, so I tried calling Morgan again to tell her I loved them...no answer. Strange. I sit down on the rocks and Ben says again "Are you sure that's all of them? Let me see them, I want to leave a comment for Paul". Sure enough when he takes my phone, more pictures had loaded so he handed it back to me and the next messages said:

Then the last picture wouldn't load. But at this point I knew. I remember thinking and saying "What! WHAT!" over and over again. I couldn't believe this was finally happening. The picture still wouldn't load, so Ben got up from where he was sitting beside me, knelt down in front of me and said, "Well since the picture won't load..." and he pulled out a ring box. And I still couldn't stop saying "What!!"

Then he said the words I had been waiting to hear "Will you marry me?"

He opened the box and a beautiful ring sparkled in front of me. I had always thought when this moment came I would have something more eloquent to say, but the words weren't coming to me. I finally stopped saying "What!" long enough to answer, "YES!"

We both jumped up and he kissed me. And we hugged. And I laughed while continuing to be shocked. The final picture of Paul finally loaded and sure enough, the last sign he was holding read "WILL YOU MARRY ME?"

Ben couldn't have picked a better way to ask me. This time when I called Morgan back, she did answer, because she knew I had seen all the photos and Ben and I were ENGAGED!!!

 Ben snapped these while I was on the phone with Morgan. I look like a dork, but I'm happy he took them.

The rest of that day was a blur- calling our friends (who by then I had figured out weren't actually meeting us at the park!), surprising our families, driving back and forth to see as many of our other friends and family as we could. But I'll always remember little things about that day- like the outfits we wore, how hot the sun was, stopping to take pictures of daffodils and tulips (those flowers will always be so special to me now), the lone kayaker at the end of the river, the couple of ducks swimming nearby. I'll also remember how happy we were, how fun it was to call everyone, and how my Mom screamed when we showed up at my parents doorstep and told her the news.

Ben always said that he wanted to propose "his way" and I never understood what he meant. But I should have. I am with such a thoughtful, and kind man, who can't even give me a birthday card without planning out what he wants to write in it for days. So of course he was going to put even more thought and effort into what would become one of the happiest days of my life. I am blown away by all the little details that went into making sure I was completely surprised. I can honestly say his proposal was even better than anything I had ever imagined.

We are engaged!!!

We couldn't be happier.