Today is a very special day--it is the day we got engaged!!!!
No offense to Christmas, but for me, now is the most wonderful time of the year. Yes, February. LOVE IT. No one expects good things to happen in February, but this February we got our new house, and last February, we got engaged! So February has been good to us!
I was one of those girls who always wanted to get engaged at Christmas...so last Christmas, I was NOT happy when I got some Tory Burch flats from Travis instead of a sparkly ring. I was expecting some bling!! But come February, I expected nothing. So here is the story of how we got engaged....and I know most of you have heard this 28736472 times, but I want to write about it anyway! :)
Our journey begins mid-January, when, after the Christmas let-down, I decided to make this recipe I found in Glamour magazine for
Engagement Chicken. I mean, hey why not? What did I have to lose?!
Ladies, let me tell you. IT WORKS (obviously). It was really good, and if you Google it, there are pages upon pages of testimonials of girls saying it also worked for them. I am a true believer in the Engagement Chicken (yes, I do realize you probably think I am crazy).
Anyways....fast forward a few weeks. We always go to the mountains for Valentine's Day weekend....
{2009 in Spruce Pine}
{2010 in Chimney Rock}
So, last year we decided to go to Asheville and see the
Biltmore.
Gorgeous, right?!
Ok, so that morning, Travis seemed to be a little on-edge. I was running late (like normal), and he was stressing out that we were going to miss our scheduled time to tour the mansion. We finally got to the house and parked our car. In the back of my mind, I was thinking, "Wouldn't it be cool to get engaged here?!" but I had thought that so many other times before (we had been dating for over 3 years, people!), so I quickly pushed the thought out of my mind, so I wouldn't be disappointed again. My friend, Natalie, had even said to me before we left, "OMG you're going to get engaged at the Biltmore like on One Tree Hill!" Hahah...but I was pretty convinced it wasn't happening. Anyway, Travis got out of the car and sort of patted his pockets down and asked if we had everything. There clearly wasn't a ring box in those pockets, so I just kinda forgot about my little engagement daydream.
We toured the whole house, which is AMAZING. They don't let you take pictures inside, so sadly, I don't have any. But if you've never been to the Biltmore, you have to go. Add it to your bucket list now.
So after we toured the whole house, we decided to walk across the front lawn up to this little balcony, so I could take a picture of the front of the house.
We got up there, I took a picture of the house and then this not-so-great pic of Trav and me.
Not happy with the picture, I put my camera on a ledge nearby and set the timer on. I walked around to Travis, he grabs my hand...which is when the timer went off:
I was like "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"
He simply said, "Baby, I love you," and then preceded to get down on his knee and ask "Will you marry me?"
I WAS FREAKING OUT!!! I thought he was joking, because, hey, where's the ring? I probably asked him if he was joking no less than 25 times. Then he pulled this bad boy out of a ZIPLOC bag in his pocket!
So THAT'S why it looked like there was nothing in his pockets...a Ziploc bag! He's so sneaky...
But anyways, I continued freaking out for another 10 minutes. I was shaking, out of breath and still asking "Are you serious?!?" Hahaha...then these nice people came by and took our first engaged couple picture!
It was honestly the perfect proposal...I was surprised, AND I got a picture of it happening (something I'd always wanted)! And that ring! He did SUCH a good job...I'm like seriously so obsessed with my ring. It's everything I ever wanted. It may not be the biggest diamond ever, but I wouldn't want anything different. I love it so so so so much! Almost as much as the man who gave it me :)
We both called our parents, but then didn't share the news with anyone else via text or Facebook because we just wanted to enjoy being newly engaged!
We walked around the grounds and the greenhouse at the Biltmore for a little bit, then hopped in the car and drove to the winery.
Wait, whaaaat?! I just got engaged and now I get to go wine tasting?!?! Talk about best day ever! We got a tour of the winery, which is always cool, and then got to try basically any wines we wanted!
We ended up buying 3 bottles: champagne that we downed during the UNC basketball game (they won-and Ohio State lost! Which made this day even more perfect!), a bottle of wine that we drank before dinner, and then the last bottle of wine we have saved for our wedding! It was Travis' mom's idea to save wine from the day/place we got engaged to drink at the wedding and I LOVE it!
{champagne}
Once we got back to the hotel room (to watch the Carolina game, of course), we decided to start texting and Facebooking. Our phones were
blowing. up. It was like my birthday! After we watched basketball and drank champagne, we finished off the evening by heading out to downtown Asheville for dinner at
Tupelo Honey.
The food was SO GOOD!!! It was the perfect ending to an absolutely perfect day!!!
Well thanks for reading the unabridged, longest engagement story ever! I'll be back tomorrow to post about our mountain getaway
this year! And
Michelle tagged me in a Random 11 post...which, let's not lie, I love all things random, so I will be participating in that soon!!