our engagement story.

It's been 2 years today since our wedding day. It's been about 3 years since Philip asked me to marry him. That was a very special and funny night that I wanted to share.

It was a random Monday night in July. We had plans to hang out with a group of friends to catch up and visit because our friend Steve had just returned from working in China for a year. Little did I know what was really planned for that night.

Philip came over to my house a few hours before we were supposed to meet everyone. I made us dinner and we ate outside. It was a really nice afternoon- dinner was great, it was a beautiful day, we were excited to catch up with all of our friends and then I decided to bring up the fact that we weren't engaged yet . We often talked about marriage and our future together, we both knew that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together, but it just wasn't "official" yet. For some reason, during this particular talk, I decided to get really emotional about it. There was a lot of crying and silly ramblings coming out of my mouth like, "It's been so long! You don't want to marry me! You didn't even look at the ring I saw" [I found THE perfect ring at a random jewelry store 8 months back that he "never saw" before it was sold]. Through all of this crazy talk he tried to comfort me [and tried not to laugh] by hugging me and saying things like "Babe, I promise, it's sooner than you think. We'll be engaged before you know it" I of course knew he was right and that I was having some hormonal/emotional moment [us women tend to have these freak-outs now and again] so I eventually calmed down.

We needed to leave and I remember running upstairs, to change really fast. I all of a sudden wanted to wear a comfy outfit [too ease my emotions of course]. He said, "No, babe, you look great in what you have on." I didn't pick up on anything and didn't care. I wanted my jeans.

When we got to the house, no one answered the door and all of the lights were off. I didn't think anything of this because our friends that lived there had a little one who was definitely asleep and we all usually hung outside on their back patio. We made our way to the back fence and when we opened the gate, we saw the tree all lit up with hanging candles. I was delighted when I saw it but was still as clueless as they come. My response, "Wow! They really went all out for Steve." As we walked into the yard, my phone was ringing [I had called my dad a few minutes earlier. He was returning my call, thinking that the proposal had already happened]. I opened my phone to answer but Philip took it out of my hand and hung up on my dad. I was still confused as to why he did that until he took my hand and, with much intent, lead me over to the tree. At that moment, I started to realize what was going on. When we got closer, I saw that the candles draping from the tree branches were hanging above a small table. The table had candles on it and an antique book.

The next few minutes are all a big blur to me. I was so ecstatic that I can't remember the next details. I know he took me to the tree, said a lot of sweet things to me, got down on his knee and asked me to marry him. Then he gave me the book and a skeleton key. The book had an old lock mounted on it and the key opened it. Inside was a hollowed out square just big enough for a ring box. Inside the little black box was the ring I had seen 8 months before and knew was perfect.

I said yes [of coures], we hugged and kissed and then I heard a bunch of people yelling and clapping. All of our friends were inside creepin' on us ;) They all came out to congratulate us and give us big hugs. I called my mom and finally called my dad back. [He kept calling after we hung up on him, so my phone was ringing the whole time]. We called a bunch of family and friends, texted everyone, and celebrated under the twinkle lights.

Philip had so much wonderful help from keeping secrets about a ring, tying candles to fishing line, tying said fishing line to a tree, making secret phone calls and plans, mounting locks on books, and a sleepless night before this one. I was so happy to have good friends so involved that now share this memory with us. It was such a magical night that I'll always remember.