One year ago, I was preparing go visit Walker in Virginia. I was planning to make the drive from South Jersey to Virginia for the first time (previously I had taken the Amtrak) and had absolutely zero suspicion that I would be asked the most important question of my life! In honor of the one year anniversary of our engagement, and in anticipating of our wedding next week, let's go back to June 13, 2012.
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Walker and I had been talking over the past few months and had decided that we were going to get married next summer (even though we were not engaged at the time). We looked at rings this past April and I gave him my long schpeal about what I liked/didn't like. I may or may not have been a bit of a diva about it, giving him very explicit information about how big I wanted the diamond to be, knowing full well that as a full-time college student with tuition to pay and a car to buy, the chances of getting exactly what I wanted were pretty slim. For this reason, I expected a proposal to happen sometime between the end of August and Christmastime. It also didn't help to have my dad feeding me "hints" (read: lies) about the probability of getting engaged before then.
Walker came to visit me in mid-May. In the beginning of June, I realized that I was going to have a few days off before my full-time nannying job began, so he talked me into coming down to Virginia to visit him. His grandmother would be there, so this would be a great time to meet her. I packed up my stuff, and right before I left, my dad handed me an Orvis bag with a fishing vest inside that he wanted Walker to try on for size. I chucked it in my trunk and was on my way.
Are you catching on to the master plan? Inside the vest, in a pocket that had been ziptied shut, was my engagement ring, and when I arrived, I just pulled it out of the bag, handed it to Walker to try on, and walked away. Could this little transaction have gone any more smoothly?
The next day, Walker took me on a picnic to
Chatham Manor, which is a beautiful pre-Civil War historical site in his town, with beautiful gardens and architecture. We go there every time I visit, so it was nothing new. In fact, the "about me" photo on my sidebar was taken there.
Last year.
This time, we decided to take a picnic. Sweet. I was excited, but mostly because it meant I got to have Walker take more pictures of me with his fancy schmancy camera.
We packed up our lunches and headed over.
Walker actually intended to propose right away, so we moseyed around the gorgeous grounds, casually taking pictures and chatting.
We reached a beautiful spot (the same bench in the photo that was taken a year ago) and took a picture. Walker was about to start in on his little speech, but one of the curators decided that moment would be the perfect time to start weed whacking.
See how nervous he looks? His hand is on the ring box in his pocket!
So with that plan ruined, we walked back to our picnic and ate our lunch. Walker must have been just a tiny bit nervous because he proceeded to FIRE down his lunch as fast as he possibly could. We're talking, the moment I took my last bite, he began to wash our plates and then jumped up and insisted that we take another walk.
Can you believe that I still was not suspecting anything?
We went over to a little half-wall (a few yards to the right of the above photo) that overlooked the town. I sat down and he stood in front of me. It was at that moment that I realized something was up, but only in the sense that Walker wasn't sitting beside me. We were definitely not about to be engaged, because I was just positive that the pretty rings were too expensive.
He told me how much he loved me and that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. He also shared how much his life has changed since dating me and the ways in which it had drawn him closer to God.
What is going on?
Why is he telling me this?
And for goodness sake, why isn't he sitting next to me?
After expressing his desire to continue growing closer to God with me, he got down on one knee, pulled out a little box containing the most gorgeous diamond I had ever seen (that glittered spectacularly in the sunlight!) and asked me if I would do him the honor of marrying him.
I gasped my "yes" and then giggled with him as he figured out which finger the ring was supposed to go on. After I was done hyperventilating/shaking, we walked over to to a bench and he told me the whole backstory.
He picked out the ring when he was here in May. One morning, he told me was going to the fishing store with my dad, but instead, my parents took him to our jeweler in Philadelphia where he chose the setting to be custom-made. The center stone was my grandmother's - it turns out she has three diamonds (one for each of my sisters and me). He also bought the wedding band which matches perfectly.
So what did we do with the rest of our time at Chatham? Took photos of the ring with his fancy schmancy camera, of course!
It was a perfect day. I could not have asked for anything more amazing.
Let the wedding planning begin!
