Our Engagement Story

On this day of love, I wanted to share with you one of the most romantic days in my life, the day the husband and I got engaged!!

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Chris surprises me often with sweet gestures and small gifts, so I wasn’t shocked when he made a date for a romantic dinner that overlooked the Pacific Ocean after I had a very stressful week.

Afterwards as we walked toward a look-out point at the Terranea Resort in Palos Verdes. We sat on a bench right by the cliff, over looking the ocean, under a full moon. Chris brought along a shoebox and said, “I have a special present for you.”

Chris, who is a Marine Biologist and a free diver,  told me that he wanted to show me one of his new dive spots.  He was carrying the shoe box inside a bag. I thought I was getting a new pair of running shoes.

Chris opened the box and started handing me mementos from all the experiences we’ve had since we started dating. There were tickets from our first “official date” to the Long Beach Grand Prix, boarding passes from our first trip to Hawaii, and the pamphlet and tickets from “Wicked” during  a Valentine’s Day trip to San Francisco.

I felt so touched that Chris had thought to keep these mementos from our life together that I asked if I could possibly, you know, just maybe use them for my scrapbooking.

Then there was one more thing…

Chris gave me a Beanie Baby, the Hope Bear, he had bought the bear during a particularly rough time in his life when both his beloved dog and aunt had died.

(Side Note: Chris and I were interviewed by our wedding photographer, Nate, about the story of our engagement. We each answered his questions from our own perspective and below is the excerpt from that interview.)

Chris said…….

“I told her that the reason I had chosen that bear was because I had hoped that she would consider marrying me, I dropped on one knee and opened the ring box.  She screamed out in surprise and put the ring on.  She was so excited that she had forgotten that I was asking her to marry me so I asked her again and she said, Yes!”

Lea said…..

“From what I can remember, he told me the story about the bear and then towards the end, he kneeled down and said something like “I’m HOPING that you will….blah, blah, blah. That’s all I heard because he took out the ring box and opened it and I don’t know exactly what happened from there.  I can tell you what was in my head and Chris can tell you what actually happened!

In my head I was thinking, “Oh my god, Oh my god, what is happening!?!  This is it, I can’t believe this is actually happening right now!!!  Ahhhh, I’m so excited!  Look at that beautiful ring. Oh my…”

My advice to guys:  Say your speech first then take out the ring so that you don’t have to compete for her attention with the ring you’re holding.

Thanks for reading 🙂

The pictures above were from our Trash The Dress session, the day after the wedding.