Ringing in the Celebrations

When people get engaged, the first thing I say is "Congratulations!". The second thing I say is, "Show me the ring!"

Jeromy and I had visited a couple antique jewelers months and months ago "just to look". We had been talking about an engagement in that vague way that people talk about babies and retirement. To my knowledge, our timeline was firmly set at 2016 at the earliest for a proposal. So while we looked at rings, I knew not to get my hopes up too high.

What little I knew!

Back in February, Jeromy worked in New Orleans for the entire month on a banking client. It was pretty hellish hours. He didn't have a single day off (including Sundays) for the entire month. I would visit on the weekends and lend moral support, but we didn't get to see much of each other.

However, he was finding time to ring shop.

He searched 15-20 different antique dealerships in the New Orleans area in the month of February without any luck. Either the rings were not pretty enough, not detailed enough, or just not right... I'm still not sure how he managed to do all of this without my knowledge.

When he couldn't find anything that satisfied him, he came to Lafayette to look. One Saturday in March, he ditched lunch plans with Laura Leigh and me to pick up Abby and go ring shopping. (I was pretty mad about the canceling plans part.. But I guess I can forgive him for this one, right?)

They were looking at rings that THEY would like, including one that "had diamonds piled up like a castle on your hand", when he looked left and saw this one.

The ring.

An 1930s antique art deco style ring with intricate scrollwork and cutouts, featuring small green garnets on either side of the diamond. He handpicked the diamond to go into the setting, and boy, does it shine.

(As Abby points out, I manage to slip it into every Snapchat I send. Sorry, not sorry.)

Nothing has brought me greater joy, comfort, and contentment than seeing this beautiful ring on my finger. Not because the diamond is so sparkly (but y'all, this diamond is so sparkly!) or because the intricate details on the band is exactly what I envisioned, but because every single day, when I slip on this ring, I am reminded of the wonderful man who gave me his heart, this ring, and, one day, his last name.

We're Engaged!

Every girl dreams of a classic engagement story, right? Something new and surprising that will make everyone swoon when you tell it to them.

My momma didn't get that engagement story. In fact, (as she has retold it countless times) her engagement story went something like this...

Mom: Hey, Scott. Don't you think it's time we get married?
Dad: You're probably right.

I'm sure it was much more romantic when it actually happened, but 30 years down the road, their story has boiled down to this. Because of this, of course, she has always urged me to wait and let my fiancé propose to me.

But a girl does get impatient...

Jeromy and I had a friendship that involved fussing about the opposite sex. We both had rough pasts and had come out of long term relationships recently. Our friendship was a way to vent to each other about the opposite sex, with a healthy dose of picking and tormenting. You know, a budding relationship. We hung out throughout the whole summer, as nothing more than friends. (A fact we were pretty adamant about.)

That changed the first time we hugged.

Cliché, right? We touched, and sparks and fireworks and opera music.. Cue the eyerolls. But it's true. We both knew something had changed that night. Something, as in, our whole lives.

Fast forward nearly two years down the road, and my boy is on bended knee.

Saturday started out as any other Saturday. We were slightly hungover (much thanks to Abby and Jordan for coming grill with us at midnight!), and while I went to my cousin's baby shower, Jeromy slept in. (Edit: Jeromy wanted me to include that he also cut the grass while I was gone, thank you very much.)

He was leaving for Denver on Sunday, so we planned a date night that consisted of cooking and drinking wine. (Moving is expensive, y'all. And his chicken sauce pincaté is to die for.) While catching up on some Louie on-demand, he told me he had a surprise for me, but he had to put it together. Ok? So I ran to the grocery store while he put my present together.

When I got home, he handed me an Amazon box. Not unusual, since 95% of his shopping is done on Amazon. I opened up the box and found the most beautiful book.

A pop-up book! The most intricate, delicate, beautiful pop-up book I have ever seen. Of course, I hold the Wizard of Oz close to my heart, as any Gamma Kappa KD does. The pictures in the book were beautiful, and the pop-ups on every page were stunning. I was tearing up at just the thought of him going out of his way to surprise me with this beautiful novel.

As I'm flipping through the pages (very, very slowly and carefully), I come to the second-to-last page. It's Dorothy. On a hot air balloon. With a ring.

Yes, he proposed to me on a hot air balloon.. in a book. He knows me so well.

He got down on bended knee, and told me that he knew he has wanted to marry me since our first hug. And would I do him the honor of being his wife.

My response? "You're serious, right? This isn't a joke or a test run or anything? This is real life?"

Then, of course, "YES!"