February 8, 2010 was kind of a big deal for me an Tom. It was the day that Tom proposed, and I said yes. I realized that I had not yet shared our engagement story, so I figured today would be a good opportunity to do so.
I knew that something was up when Tom texted me at work one night in the middle of January, 2010. He flat out asked me what size ring I wore. I responded back, "which one?" and he answered, "the one that counts." So I knew that he was, at the very least, ring shopping. He later texted me to inform me that we had dinner reservations for the Wednesday night before Valentine's Day, and that I needed to wear something nice. I immediately put two and two together and got all excited. I thought that Tom was going to propose at the restaurant.
That night, I picked Tom up from work, and started asking questions about the ring. Tom immediately put a damper on everything. He told me that he was looking at rings, but that he wanted to wait a bit before proposing. I asked him a couple more times over the course of the month, and he was adamant that he was not buying me a ring yet. I started to believe him, but in the back of my mind, I was holding out for our Valentine's date. I should also add that during the month of January, Tom and I bought a car together. It was our first major purchase as a couple.
A couple weeks later, it was the week of our big date. Tom and I both worked Thursday-Monday, and were off on Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday night, I was at work, and slightly excited about my upcoming "weekend" and our date. Tom called me, and told me that he was really concerned about black ice on the roads. He insisted on picking me up from work. I am a Maine girl, black ice does not scare me, so I told him that I would be fine. Several hours later, I was making arrangements with my supervisor to leave work an hour early so that Tom could pick me up.
Once I got outside, the first thing I noticed was that there was no black ice in the parking lot. I walked over to Tom, in our new car, and mentioned that to him as I got into the passenger seat. Tom made a comment about how the ice was worse closer to our apartment. He then asked me to get something out of the center console so that we could "listen to music on the way home." Apparently, my ring was in the console, but I somehow missed it. Once we got closer to home, we stopped at a local convenience store and Tom asked me to run inside to get us a couple drinks. We do this all the time, and I did not think anything of it, so I went in. I got back to the car with two drinks, and attempted to put my drink in the cup holder, but it did not fit. Tom asked me if something was in the way, so I reached down, and found a black velvet box. Tom asked me to open it, and I did. From the street lights, I could see a gorgeous three-stone diamond ring. Tom looked me in the eyes and said, "You already know the question that I am going to ask you, I just hope that you say yes." Of course, I said yes and slipped the ring on my finger. I then commenced to giggle maniacally and bounce around in my seat. I was more than a little excited.
Once we got back to our apartment, I wanted to start calling everyone, only, it was 11 o'clock at night. I made due by calling my sister and texting everyone else a picture of my ring and the message "I said yes!." The next day was spent calling friends and family and sharing the good news. We also had an informal "engagement party" in that we invited a bunch of our friends over for to play Rockband.
That Wednesday, Tom and I went out for our fancy dinner to celebrate our engagement. He took me to an Argentinian restaurant that was up on a hill overlooking the Kansas City skyline. I wish I could say I enjoyed the view, but I was much too busy staring at the sparkly ring on my hand, and my handsome fiancé across the table.
That was a year ago, and our wedding seemed so far off. Here we are now, the wedding is just shy of 7 months away and we are in the middle of planning. I still feel like the luckiest girl on earth.
