My Magical Engagement Moment
Our wedding anniversary was this past Sunday. It got me to thinking about what our wedding was like which led me to thinking about recent weddings I’ve attended or ones I’ve seen pictures of.
Most of today’s weddings seem to be very elaborate. They often include the Engagement Moment, the Say Yes to the Dress experience, the Bachelor’s and Bachelorette’s Weekend, professional Make-up and Mani/Pedi’s, a ceremony with umpteen people in the wedding party, a lavish Reception with a Dinner and Dance, ending with a luxurious Honeymoon. Most of these occasions are documented by a professional photographer ending in thousands of photos to choose from.
No wonder one of the dad’s in my family said, “I always heard you need to save for your child’s college education. Now that my daughter has married, I realize that’s what I should have been saving for.”
Don’t get me wrong, I am happy for all the brides and grooms who have the elaborate wedding experiences, however, I know it is not necessary in order to have a wonderfully “memorable” time, such as I experienced.
Take my Magical Engagement Moment, for instance. My husband, Jimmy, and I had dated about a year when he started suggesting we get married. He was totally convinced “I was The one.” I was not convinced that he was “The one” for me! In fact, I was kinda hung up on another guy I had dated who now wouldn’t give me the time of day!
We continued dating and he kept saying he wanted to marry me. You have to understand, I was a typically mixed up teenage girl who really had no idea what she wanted, other than to be happily married like my parents were. How and why I was so mixed up is for another story (or not). Anyway, Jimmy was so persistent that I finally told him I would marry him.
He immediately wanted to shop for an engagement ring but I kept putting him off as I wasn’t sure I was making the right decision. Finally, I took the plunge. He had picked me up from my ride back from college and we were in town. I said, “Let’s go look at rings.” I thought he would be really excited that I was finally ready, but he said, “I don’t want to do that today.” Now, I’m not known for my temper, but I can tell you I got mad quick. I was yelling at him as we passed a jewelry store letting him know that I couldn’t believe he wasn’t going to look at rings when he had been wanting to for over a year. I went on and on as he was driving. Finally, I fell silent and just sat looking out my car window.
Suddenly, Jimmy reached under his car seat, removed a small box and opened it saying, “Here, then!” I could see the reflection of a diamond ring in my window. I immediately was both terrified and terribly excited!! I slowly turned and put the ring on. It was nothing like what I had planned to pick out–it was much prettier and it fit perfectly. I was pretty much speechless as Jimmy explained that he had planned to give me the ring when we went out that night but instead had just grabbed it without thinking when I threw my fit.
My Magical Engagement Moment is one I will never forget. I can vividly remember that it happened on a November Saturday morning while riding down Interstate 70 in a white Nova SS as we were passing the Columbia Parkade Plaza.
When we got to my house, we realized my parents had company. I immediately removed the ring and slipped it into my pocket explaining that we could’t tell my parents about it in front of company. It wasn’t until the next day that I nonchantly showed them the ring. A ring of beauty representing the true love Jimmy had for me. Looking back on our engagement, I now know it was a forewarning that our marriage would be sorely lacking in picture-perfect romantic gestures but full of lots of wonderful and funny surprises!
Stay tuned for my “Say Yes to the Dress” post and let me know if your engagement moment was as “magical” as mine.
I love your special story, it made me giggle!
Greg proposed to me in the winter. It was like a blizzard outside. We were sitting on the couch in our sweatpants watching TV, just a regular night after the kids went to sleep. Then he pulled this box out of the corner of the couch with my beautiful ring and asked me to be his wife. It was so special to hear him tell me how he worked with Melody’s Jewelry to design it. The thought and time he put into it makes it all the more meaningful to me.
Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for sharing your story, Danielle. Please like the blog and share it if possible. I’m still trying to figure out how people can do all that! My technology skills were a bit sharper when I was Greg’s teacher.
I also don’t have the time set right. My comment was not at 12:40 am!!!