http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LwpKsatutY <--the Engagement Video


Ah, the years I've dreamt about what it would be like to tell the engagement story. Little did I know that words will NEVER be able to do it justice. To answer the most popular question, yes I was surprised! If you watch the video without the story it would be hard to gather that..but I will explain to the best of my ability..

So, we decided on Monday the 16th to go out to celebrate our being together for ten months. In my mind, I had thought a lot about the engagement and had a feeling it was going to be somewhere around mid September..not really for any reason..I just had a gut feeling. So on our ten month, we planned to do dinner and then some sort of outdoor activity. Well--it POURED outside, so the outdoor part had to be 'rain checked.' That was totally fine, we ended up watching the Jungle Book. :)

On Friday, Chris mentioned that he was going to have to go back to Greenville for the day to work, and I wouldn't be able to see him till later on that night..I was sad because it was our first weekend in Clemson and wanted to spend Friday with him, but I knew he had an obligation to his work back in Greenville. At the last minute, he told me he didn't have to go home so we were going to be able to hang out. Even if I thought that we were going to be getting engaged soon (which I didn't..) I would have NEVER thought that it would be on a day that his work plans got rearranged, I was just happy that he was staying in Clemson for the day. So we hung out, played some tennis, and he casually asked me about going to dinner (not unusual.) I asked him if he wanted everyone to go and he was like "Eh, I dunno..we can just make a date out of it." SUPER casual..

We went to dinner at Brioso's (delicious)and the conversation was very very typical for us..nothing out of the ordinary. Then we walked down about a block into downtown Clemson to this little park area with some fountains. We were hugging (again, not unusual haha) and went to kiss when we noticed a mom and her little boy. We sat down for a while and waited to see if they were going to leave..but they didn't, so Chris was like "oh well, let's just go to the Botanical Gardens instead." This, again, was not unusual..we go to the Gardens all the time-in fact, we were there hammocking just before we played tennis that day. I figured the only reason we were going there was because we didn't want to disturb the little boy and his mom. (In retrospect, I guess them being there worked out for Chris ;))

So we drive to the gardens and walk around aimlessly (as usual.) We get to a certain place in the Gardens after about 20 minutes and Chris tells me to close my eyes because he has something to show me. So he covers my eyes and leads me for a couple minutes to this spot. In my head, I was thinking that this was our "rain check" from the other night, and that maybe we were going to have some kind of picnic for desert, or that he had set up a blanket and flowers for me or something.

When he uncovered my eyes, I looked around and there were fifty lit candles lining the stone walls and ground under the pergola (where months earlier we had recorded a video to keep in mine for future wedding locations). Directly under the pergola were scattered flower petals, and in front of me was my best friend down on one knee. I started sobbing immediately (feeling bad that he could barely get any words out over my crying) and then he tells me words I won't ever forget. I didn't get to see the ring (that was still in his pocket) when I fell to my knees in front of him to hug him. After a few seconds he tells me to look to my right, and there beside us was his brother, our good friend (and his roommate) Paul, Paul's brother David, our friend Anthony, and our other friend, Mark. Tim was recording us the whole time, and all the boys had on khakis and blue button down shirts. Paul brought over a bottle of wine, David brought over a bouquet of flowers, and we hugged and I cried and they continued to take pictures..

Good thing Tim was videotaping, because this experience was SO surreal..I'm glad I can watch and put the images with my memory of it. I am so thankful and blessed to be engaged to my best friend, and we are SO thankful for the support of our family and friends..and August 20th was by far the greatest day of my life. I can't even imagine what my feelings are going to be like on our wedding day!

Amazing. We are so very blessed.