Friday, August 12, 2011

Proposal Pictures!

Thank you Struan for taking pictures!!









Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Engagement Story



John and I are engaged!!!! And here's the story of how it happened...

John and I booked tickets to go to Sydney, Australia about 3 months ago. I knew the plan was to stay with John's friend Struan and see the Sydney sights while we stayed there for a week but I had no idea how much more planning was going into this trip, a trip that I will never forget...

On our last night we took a trip to downtown Sydney heading to the hotel where we (John) had booked a room for the night. I believe he used the words "Backpacker" and "shared" while describing the place to me. But to my absolute surprise we stopped at a very fancy Sir Stamford Hotel. There we swam in the outdoor heated pool on their roof for an hour or so and ran back to our suite in our cosy white robes to get ready to find a place to go for dinner. While we were getting ready to go John called me over to the couch and showed me a video that he had made for me. It was a message of love that John had written for me and he got my parents, my sister Holly, my friends Sarah and Peter, John's parents and his sister Jenny and our friend Ben all to read his words. Thank you to everyone who was in the video, it means so much and was an important part of our special day. I watched it with tears of happiness and love but as overwhelmed as I was with the sweetness and thoughtfulness of my boyfriend...I had no idea what was in store...

For dinner we were (I was) thinking of getting some Italian food but again I was led into another surprise. John led me to a restaurant, Aria, which overlooks the Sydney harbor, the Opera House and the bridge. It was very fancy and everyone was so polite, we had an amazing view while we ate our delicious food which was to die for.

*I should mention that John did a spectacular job at looking normal, calm and relaxed. I suspected nothing out of the ordinary. We had talked about it being a year since we met in Ireland last summer and so I was expecting that all this was a celebration of us and our year together.*

After our amazing dinner John and I walked down to the Opera House for one last view before leaving the next morning. It was a beautiful night with clear skies and a little breeze and we strolled slowly down the walkway that wraps around the opera house. We came to a stop where not many people were around, just a small group of people leaning on the railing. John and I stopped to take it all in once more. We kissed and cuddled while talking about how much we truly love each other and how happy we are.

*My one clue was as we were cuddling I could feel John's heart pounding and I began to suspect...*

John then lead me a little closer to the opera house when John called to Struan! who was sneakily hiding in the shadows waiting for us. He strolled over with a small book in his hand which was given to me. "A Love Story". It was a short story about us that John had written and put together with pictures. As I began to read the story I noticed that the group of people by the railing were walking towards us and...they started to sing! They were an a Capella group and they sang a beautiful arrangement of a song that John and I love to sing along to on the radio; "Marry You" by Bruno Mars (here's a link to the song if you don't know it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMr9zCvtOfY&feature=related )

The last page of the book was a picture of John down on one knee with a ring in his hand which is when John took a knee and asked me to marry him. HOW COULD I SAY NO????!!!!

John had bought the ring in December! And had it when we got to New Zealand and I'm sure was stressed about it after the earthquake in Christchurch. I just can't imagine how hard it was to make sure that I didn't find out about any of this.

I am the luckiest girl in the world. The man I love more than anything asked me to marry him!
John had mentioned that when he proposed it would be a big romantic thing... I really had no idea.

So happy.