She + He = We : Our engagement story.

3 years ago today Stone proposed to me... and I said yes.

I had written the story of our engagement down in a moleskin journal a few days after the proposal. I pulled out the journal this morning and read what I had written... and it was lovely, but I had left our all of the great details that made the engagement humorous, and unique to us.

So here goes...

Stone and I got engaged on Town Lake in Austin, Texas. He had just recently moved to Texas and employed a few of my friends to help him pull the whole thing off (and we are still to this day so grateful for their help and support on that day!). Stone was insistent to me that we leave to head to Austin at 8, which when you are in college you never really greet the sun so early, so I knew something had to be up. I am a classic girl (meaning I read into everything) and had already decided he was going to propose, I had decided that he was so amped up to leave early because we were actually catching a flight to somewhere really awesome (like California or Colorado). The week leading up my friends could not keep a straight face to save their lives. They were giving it away left and right... even taking me to get my nails done and insisting that I get a French Manicure (cough, cough... Kirbie).

So, there I sat on Saturday morning, bright and early with beautiful nails waiting to be picked up by my soon to be fiance.

When he got there I felt like it was a first date all over again, the expectations of the day were almost unbearable. The drive to Austin was great, we just sang, talked and laughed together. Then, about 30 minutes outside of the city the butterflies came back. My mind was racing as to when he would tell me we were actually headed to the airport. But, instead Stone slipped a new CD into the changer and a Tristan Prettyman song came on (one of my favorites) and he then announced that the big surprise was that he got us tickets to the concert that night.

When I heard this my mood quickly changed from great to awful. I was expecting a trip and an engagement, but just realized that I was getting neither! So the rest of the morning I spent quite annoyed, and that annoyance was only escalated when we got into town and decided to go to brunch, but Stone had made zero plans for the day. I thought that I woke up at 7 and got dressed up for nothing.

After some food and shopping we headed to a park to enjoy the day and hopefully brighten my mood too. As soon as we stepped out of the car Stone grabbed my hand and raced me across the park lawn, explaining he was just trying to find a good spot to sit. He was so in the zone he actually walked us right through a soccer game that was going on. We ended up walking along the lake getting big smiles and thumbs up from everyone we passed. This seemed weird. What was happening though, was that all of these people were passing the proposal spot and then seeing us, putting two and two together, and doing a terrible job at keeping it all a secret.

We walked up to a little white row boat complete with flower petals and a basket of goodies and I knew. This was it. Stone rowed us out to the middle of Town Lake and what you can't see from the photos is that there were actually tons of people on the lake rowing by, laying out, listening to music and basically interrupting OUR moment. Stone proposed with a lengthy spiel which I can remember none of and handed me the most beautiful ring I have ever seen... ever. The rest of the day was kind of a beautiful blur. Our friends surprised us for dinner at Shady Grove and we all enjoyed the concert together. The end.

Love you more than ever husband.