We’re Engaged!

YES! You read that right… Shane and I are officially engaged! If you follow along with me on Instagram, that probably isn’t any sort of new news since it happened two weeks ago today, and I already shared it there. But I wanted to take a moment to share the full story of everything that happened here as well. Partially for myself as a journal of sorts so that I have something to look back on to relive the special day (and trip, but more on that later) and partially to share with all of you!

As I’ve never been known to tell short stories, brace yourselves, people. This is a long one.

Let’s start from the beginning…

Since I haven’t caught the blog up on things in a while, I feel like I should give some backstory. About a year or two into Shane and I dating (we’ve been together for 4 years), we talked about how fun it would be to one day go on a trip to Europe together! We talked about it constantly and were always playing the game of where we would go, discussing all the fun things we would do, see, and, of course, eat. Last summer, we were sitting around talking about it, and we were finally like, let’s just book the flights. We’re either going to just sit around talking about it or actually do it, so we finally pinned down where we wanted to go and booked the flight for 9 months later… ha! I know that seems kind of crazy, but we wanted to give ourselves time to plan and save since we knew it wasn’t going to be a cheap trip. We settled on Paris, Venice, and Lake Como. Paris is my favorite place in the world, so I was pretty insistent on wanting to go there. Shane was pretty insistent on wanting to go to Venice because he’d never been. And then, we settled on Lake Como as our third destination because neither of us had been there and knew it would be amazing and romantic. Here’s where I feel like I should tell you that my parents got engaged in Paris, and Shane’s parents got engaged in Venice. I didn’t know at the time obviously, but at this point, Shane had already decided he was going to propose on this trip, which was why he wanted us to go to Venice so badly! As you can tell from the photos, Shane proposed to me in Paris on the morning of our first full day, and it was the most beautifully planned and well-thought-out day I could’ve ever imagined.

The first question I’ve gotten from almost everyone is some variation of, “Were you surprised?? I mean, you had to know, right?” And let me just tell you, I was SHOCKED. Now I’m not dumb; like any girl, when we decided last summer to plan a spring trip to Europe, my immediate thought was, omg, I wonder if we’ll get engaged! I mean to me, it seemed like the most romantic and ideal place to do it. I would catch myself making up scenarios in my head of how he might propose, and I had countless conversations with my mom speculating and dreaming. One of those conversations was on my birthday this past March.

Unbeknownst to me, back in February, Shane asked my dad out to breakfast to talk to him and ask for his permission to propose. If you didn’t also already know this about me, my parents are jewelers, so this is when the conversation about the ring began as well. I had told my mom long before even meeting Shane that when the time came for me to get engaged, I didn’t want to be involved at. all. I didn’t want to look at rings or have any conversation with him about what I wanted because I wanted to be totally surprised. Over the years, I’d mention to my mom things I did and did not like about engagement rings I saw, and that’s basically it. I trusted them completely and knew whatever I got, I would love, but I was completely blown away by this ring.

So, back to my birthday. My mom and I went to lunch, just the two of us, and we spent almost two hours talking about this trip and how I wanted to get engaged. I was practically crying about it. My mom, of course, already knew it was happening, so she did some stealth level lying and put the kibosh on any Parisian engagement fantasies I had. She told me that I was *not* under any circumstances getting engaged on this trip and that that just was not what this trip was about. She even went as far as making up a story about how she and Shane had talked a while back and that he had implied that we wanted to propose this Summer around the Fourth of July with both of our families close by. And that was pretty much that! She was extremely convincing, and I fully believed her. As we got closer and closer to the trip, she continued to reinforce her statements that it was not going to happen on this trip, and I had finally come around and accepted that and was fully okay with it. I was just excited to be in Europe with the love of my life!

The Engagement

Now you’re probably wondering, how did he manage to surprise you? How did they make sure you were dressed right? Shane had told me he wanted to plan one day of the trip since I was planning almost everything else, which seemed totally normal and not weird to me. My mom and Shane were fully conspiring at this point, so my mom told me that he had told her what we were doing and that one of the things was “really Instagrammy and something where I would want to be in a cute outfit and take lots of photos.” She helped me pick out all of my outfits for the trip (thank God, so she could make sure my outfit was engagement appropriate.) and I loved the outfit we settled on. The day before the trip, I was going to get my nails done, and I almost got red nails, but my mom gently and without giving anything away just subtly was like, “I mean, get red if you want, but do you think it’s going to go with all of your outfits?” She knew I’d come to my senses, and I knew she was right, so I went with my usual light pink. The morning of the engagement, I called my mom when I woke up just to say hi, and I told her that I had a dream Shane’s surprise was that he was taking me somewhere to make custom hats… so random, I know! On the phone, she asked me if I was getting ready yet, and I told her that I was about to start getting ready but that I was tired and really didn’t want to wash my hair, to which she replied, “Oh honey, you were just on a long flight, I think you’ll feel a lot better if you do.” I knew she was right, so I ended the call and got up to get ready.

Shane went out and brought me a croissant and some coffee to enjoy while I got ready (so sweet!!!), and when we were both ready, we called an Uber to go to our first surprise. As we were driving, I remember looking at Shane and saying, “You seem really anxious. Are you okay?” he was kind of short in his response and said he was fine. I chalked it up to the jetlag and didn’t think too much of it.

Our Uber dropped us off right along the Seine, and we started walking down a ramp toward the river. The view of the Eiffel Tower from where we were was incredible, and I pointed it out, and Shane offered to take a picture of me. I told him I wanted a picture of both of us, and he said, “We can do that after. Let me take one of you first.” I took off my jacket because I didn’t want it in the photo, and he began snapping away. You can see what he captured here! The rest is a little bit of a blur, but he started to put my phone in his pocket and walk towards me. I was like, “What are you doing?” and he grabbed both of my hands and just said something like, “Just wait a second.” At that moment, I knew what was happening, and my immediate response was, “NO!” He proceeded to recite a beautiful speech, and I was so surprised I couldn’t control myself; I was crying, screaming, jumping, the works! At one point, Shane stopped talking because he was worried I was going to faint or fall into the river. After he put the ring on my hand and kissed me, he turned me around to show that there was a photographer there capturing the entire thing! I couldn’t believe that I had been so oblivious and had no idea what was happening around me! We spent about 15 minutes taking photos with the photographer and then Facetimed my parents, who had stayed up waiting for my call. We all cried together, and it was so special! Okay, I’m crying again writing this!!!!

What happened next…

The rest of the day was a complete fairytale. I was on cloud 9 all day long (honestly, all of the trip, if we’re being honest!), and Shane had filled the day with so many sweet and incredible surprises.

After getting off the phone with my parents, Shane had arranged for us to be picked up by a Venetian Water Taxi for a private cruise along the Seine, complete with champagne and picture-perfect views of my beloved Eiffel Tower. This was one of my favorite parts of the day because we were able to have uninterrupted time just the two of us, and I got to ask Shane allllll of my questions. There were so. many. questions. The two hours on the boat flew by, and we were dropped off back by the Eiffel Tower again! Shane told me we had some time before our lunch reservations, so we decided to just walk around for a bit and started walking away from the Eiffel Tower towards the Trocadero. At this point, I thought we were going to Girafe for lunch, but then we started walking away from the Trocadero and back towards the Tower, and I was so confused.

A little more backstory… Like I told you, my parents were engaged in Paris! But not just anywhere in Paris; they got engaged at Le Jules Verne, which is the Michelin Star restaurant in the middle level of the Eiffel Tower. I’ve always dreamed of going there, but I had looked at getting reservations months before and there weren’t any available.

So, we kept getting closer and closer to the Eiffel Tower and stopped at the entrance security point. I was looking around, and all of a sudden, I saw we were standing right in front of a sign for Le Jules Verne, and I just about lost it! We were escorted through security to a private elevator which took us all the way up! What followed was the most incredible meal I’ve ever had in my life. Not only was our lunch incredibly romantic (I showed our waiter a picture, and he even took me to see the table my parents got engaged at!), but the food and service were exceptional. I never wanted it to end! I even recreated my mom’s engagement photo! You can see them together below…

After lunch, we went back to our hotel to freshen up quickly before the next activity, which Shane told me started at our hotel. When we were ready to go, we walked downstairs out of the hotel, and we were picked up by a vintage Rolls Royce for a private city tour! We felt like royalty driving around Paris with champagne in our hands. Our driver was amazing and struck the perfect balance between chatting and pointing out special landmarks while still allowing us some private time. He stopped at some amazing photo spots along the way too!

For the final surprise of the night, our driver dropped us off at the Trocadero. Shane told me we were going to dinner and then AGAIN shocked me with dinner at Girafe, which was another one of my dream restaurants. We sat indoors due to the weather but had a view of the lit-up Eiffel Tower from our table, and the food was amazing! I would highly recommend it! (Tip for anyone trying to get a reservation there: They can be very hard to get, but Shane was able to get one through the American Express concierge.)

After dinner, we walked outside and ended our magical day watching the Eiffel Tower twinkle at 11:00 before catching an Uber back to our hotel.

There was one more surprise, though… the day we left, my mom gave Shane a sealed FedEx envelope labeled emergency information. They had told me it was just copies of our passports, emergency contact info, and things like that. When we get back to our hotel last night, Shane handed me the envelope and inside was a card from my mom and personal letters she had written to each of us along with a beautiful embroidered handkerchief that said “for happy tears” on it. I fell apart!

It doesn’t end there…

You might think the story ends there, but there’s more! The rest of our time in Paris was a dream and before we knew it, we were off to Venice! Remember, I mentioned that Shane’s parents got engaged there? Well, that’s exactly why he wanted to go there so badly! This part wasn’t exactly a surprise because I had participated in planning the reservation, but I had no idea of the significance at the time! On our second night in Venice, Shane and I went to dinner at the restaurant at The Gritti Palace where his parents got engaged! We actually went there twice that day. Once in the afternoon for Aperitivo on the patio, and then we returned in the evening for our dinner reservation. Talk about another incredible meal. We did the tasting menu, which was truly a treat, and of course, enjoyed more champagne in celebration!

I think I cried once every day of the trip. I think because I was SO shocked, I couldn’t even believe it, let alone process it. Everywhere we went, I kept stopping and looking down at my ring in surprise and delight and relishing in the magic that was happening around me.

Now, I’m planning on doing some actual trip recaps for each of our destinations, so I won’t get into that now… I think this post has been long enough! But, I truly can not express how magical this entire trip was and how grateful I am that I get to spend the rest of my life with a man who is so loving and thoughtful, and handsome, and all of the things I’ve ever dreamed of in a husband. I feel like the luckiest girl in the WORLD!

I know I haven’t been the best at keeping up with things on here, but I would like to be more consistent and share more wedding planning things on here as we get closer. And before anyone asks, no I don’t know when the wedding is yet! Let me know if that’s something you’d be interested in seeing!