engagementstory – Wearshetraveled

May 23, 2019

We woke up, ate breakfast, packed the car and left for the road trip to Monterey around 10 am that day. Not sure if you guys know this, but my fiancé surfs…and when I say he surfs, I mean he SURFS. He loves its, breathes it, and lives it!!! Every time we travel, we MUST hit up at least one surf spot! Don’t worry, there’s a reason for why I’m sharing this! So the plan was to drive up the coast and stop along the way for quick little surf sessions.

We ended up stopping in Rincon (near Santa Barbara) around 1pm but for some reason, he was being really indecisive about whether he should surf or not. It seemed like he was in a rush to get to Avila Beach (Central California where we were staying the night). At that point, please keep in mind, I was once again not suspecting anything. I thought he was rushing because he wanted to have enough time to check out Central California since we were only there for 1 evening and had to drive up to Monterey the very next day. So while he questioned if he should surf, I encouraged him to do so! I mean, we were already there, parked the car…might as well just GET OUT THERE!! haha

So he agreed and went out for a fairly quick surf session. I think we were only there for about an hour. After he got out of the water, he was not TOO happy because he didn’t catch any good waves and thought he had ‘wasted his time’. Overall, he was just being extremely time sensitive on our drive up that day. But I was just going with the flow! I didn’t really care when we got there or what we were going to do…since he planned the trip and he’s usually the one that looks up places for us to visit! lol Anyway, so after the fact of course, I understood why he was in a rush.

He was in a rush because he told the photographer to meet us at the proposal location at 4:30pm and we were definitely running late. He knew we had to go to the hotel and check in first, change/get ready and then head out. I was pretty clueless to be honest…haha and even when he was driving, he told me to grab something from the glove compartment and apparently, the glove compartment has a ‘secret’ section that is normally closed, but when I opened the glove compartment, the secret section was open and he leaned over to slam it shut!! He later told me that the RING BOX was in that secret section of the glove compartment! I guess that could have ruined the surprise!!! But I didn’t even see anything…….!!!

Anyway….we got to the hotel around 4pm?, and I got ready, mainly thinking we’re going to shoot some content and head out to dinner because we didn’t even have time to eat lunch! (he’s lucky I don’t get hangry hahah) He took a shower and wore a white button up and jeans, which he told me after the fact that he was afraid I’d ask why he’s dressed up (normally a t-shirt and shorts kinda guy). I just thought he was dressed to go to dinner after shooting!!

So…my outfit choice—I was debating between the Revolve blue floral dress and the white VICI dress. Because I thought we were headed to the beach, I knew both dresses would look amazing but definitely thought the white one would flow more with the wind. I asked him for his opinion, and he said the white one. Specifically, he also said ‘so you can match me!‘ How gross, I’m not a fan of matching haha To be honest, at that point, I KINDA suspected something…like okay why do you want me to wear the white one and made a comment about how we should match!? But being the logical person that I am and the two glaring facts of the ring not being ready and he not having asked my dad for permission, my suspicion quickly vanished.

By the way, he was also doing stretches in his jeans when I was getting ready…apparently to loosen the jeans up so he can get down on his knees!!! haha About 20 minutes after checking in and getting ready, we headed out. And after driving for about 15-20 minutes, all of a sudden he goes oh let’s check this place out on the left. So he turned into this small parking area outside of a hiking trail. THIS IS SO TYPICAL OF HIM. haha Meaning… it is very normal for us to pull over somewhere randomly because he wants to check a place out!! So we stopped….and I thought okay, sure let’s see this hiking trail. Apparently after I got out of the car, he was waiting for me to start walking towards the entrance of the trail so he can go to the glove compartment to get the ring! I think I was just on my phone but he also went to the trunk and took a shot of vodka!!! HAHAH (apparently our photographer gave him that advice..lol)

SO WHILE I WAS COMPLETELY CLUELESS…HE TOOK A SHOT OF VODKA AND GOT THE RING! Once he locked the car, we walked together, hand in hand and he lead the way. He’s about 6 inches taller than me so he pretty much blocked my view. Of course, he SAW the engagement set up first!!! hahah I didn’t know what was happening UNTIL I SAW THE RED BALLOONS POPPING over his head in the distance.

THEN…..I WAS LIKE OMG….and we walked further into the trail and I SAW THE ENTIRE SET UP!!!!! Of course, I also saw the photographer…so I KNEW!!! IN MY HEAD I WAS THINKING OMG….IS THIS HAPPENING…THIS IS HAPPENING!!!

One thing that was REALLY important to me was that I wanted to remember his words….I didn’t want to black out!! And so although the adrenaline was flowing, I somehow calmed myself down enough…to TRULY BE IN THE MOMENT. I soaked up every single word that came out of this mouth. I SAVORED EVERY SECOND OF IT! And I remember it fairly clearly!!! We decided to keep his speech private between the two of us…but he ended it with…. Will you marry me?

And he got down on his knee, opened the ring box and I DIED haha IT WAS PERFECT, THAT MOMENT, THE LOCATION (SUPER ETHEREAL AND MAGICAL), HIS SPEECH (SHORT AND SWEET), THE FREAKING RING…..!!! I said…yes, YES, YESS!!!

We are hugging and kissing and just SO, SO HAPPY!!! Popped open the champagne bottle, ate the chocolate covered strawberries, and to top if all off, headed to the beach for an engagement shoot!!! Honestly, I really, really recommend having a shoot immediately after the proposal. I think the photos really capture that happy moment…that glow!!!

And a million paragraphs later, here we are, officially an ENGAGED COUPLE!!! I will forever remember that day, the series of events that led up to the proposal, and just that surreal feeling of knowing that we will be spending the rest of our lives together!!! I knew he was the one when I realized that I just could not imagine my life without him. He truly is ONE in a million. I am so lucky that I’ll get to call him my hubby.

Hope you enjoyed this long, long read!!! Thank you for all your warm wishes!!!

Love you babes!! xoxo Kat

Hello Dolls!

I can’t believe I’m actually sitting here writing this blog post today!!! To say that I’ve been wedding obsessed since I was a teenager is an understatement. My closest friends know just HOW obsessed I am with the entire ordeal- fairy tale weddings, engagement rings, Pnina Tornai, Berta, florals…I LOVE it all!!! I feel like I’ve had my ring and dress picked out since I was 18 haha (the funny thing is when we were designing the ring I was SUPER indecisive? next blog post will be all about the ring!) Anyway…back to the point and why you’re all here. I will TRY my very best to describe the events leading up to the big day and details about the proposal in the most concise, summarized fashion I can notate. So please, bear with me!

Weeks leading up to the proposal

So, I think it was around April of this year when Bae came to me and suggested that we go ring shopping together. Mind you, we’ve gone ring shopping before and have definitely talked about getting married but there were many factors that made the timing not quite right. We’ve been together for 8 years, so it sure feels like a marriage! haha (in a good way, of course). And to be honest, both of us were not in a rush to get hitched. As much as I love weddings and live for all of this, I trusted in the timing of the universe. I wanted both of us to be at a good place in our lives–stable, comfortable and happy. I wasn’t quite sure just HOW serious he was about going ring shopping this time around until he gave me an official deadline to pick out my ring.

I believe that deadline was 6 weeks from when he suggested we go ring shopping. Being the somewhat financially savvy person that I am, I DEFINITELY needed that amount of time to perform my due diligence. This is an investment, am I right ladies? We must always perform our due diligence before a business acquisition! [any finance accounting ladies out there? ;)] I told Bae that we have to do this right. Let’s visit a few jewelers, get a couple of quotes and then go from there. And of course, we shopped around but luckily decided to go with the first jeweler we went to and they did an AMAZING job! Okay, getting back on track. So in my mind, I thought hmm 6 weeks…that takes us into May and we had a road trip planned to Monterey, California for the CaliRoots festival Memorial Day weekend. Of course, I thought, okay so maybe he wants to propose then??!?!

And let me TELL YOU….you CANNOT surprise me haha I don’t know what it is but I’m just super sensitive and pay close attention to detail so I’d know if he was up to something! Also, just to be brutally honest (sorry babe), he always gives away too many hints when he plans a ‘surprise’ and I usually figure it out!! haha So of course, being the wonderful, giving man that he is, Bae definitely dropped a few hints. Let’s use a scale now. With the deadline, I thought the possibility of the proposal happening during Memorial Day weekend was a 5 out of 10…BUT with these hints, the scale definitely tipped to 7 or 8.

Hint 1: One day, he came home from work and told me that he booked the hotels for our trip up north but he didn’t want to TELL me where we are staying?! uh that’s strange. And then he further goes on to say, I don’t want you to research the place or area we’re staying at with a physical “wink” haha (OKAY BABE, way to almost give it away haha)

Hint 2: It was either on the same day or a couple days later, Bae goes…”we can check out wedding venues while we’re there, Central California is beautiful you know?” I said…sure haha but COME ON…is that a big hint or what?! I guess I also thought, since we were engagement ring shopping, the natural thing to do is to think about where we wanted to get married. So maybe it was just a great suggestion. Either way, I was thinking alright, so potentially it will happen Memorial Day weekend.

Hint 3: A week or two before the trip, he pulls up the map and shows me a photo of this beach in Central California and asked me, oh isn’t this beautiful? You can shoot Instagram photos here. But the way he said it was a little strange…haha I feel like he was suggesting something MORE (probably from his mannerism). At this point, in my mind, I was thinking okay, it’s probably going to happen on our trip to NorCal and it’ll probably be at the beach!

BUT the WEEK before we left….a few things happened where I was almost 100% certain that he would NOT be proposing. #1 – I KNEW he didn’t talk to my dad yet because we eat dinner with my parents about once a week and I knew the two of them never had alone time together! I was always with Bae or my dad and I thought to myself, there is NO WAY he would propose without asking for my dad’s permission (more details about that later and what actually happened). #2 – One of my best friends just turned 30 so she actually went to our jeweler to get a necklace made. I went with her the weekend before our trip to pick up the necklace and the jeweler acted strange…! THEY were the ones that brought up my ring and joked about whether its ready or not…and then further talked about how making a ring takes a long time, etc. I DIDN’T ASK ABOUT IT! It was so strange that they brought up my ring!! haha (probably also to just start a convo). However, before we left, the jeweler said in all seriousness, the ring isn’t ready but if he gives us permission, we can let you know when it is. And I said, NO I don’t need to know when the ring is ready but thank you! So….I left, and was a bit confused but really believed that the ring was not ready (AND LADIES, IT ACTUALLY WASN’T!!! KEEP ON READING).

So let’s revisit that scale haha with these 2 events happening the week before our trip, I was so sure it wasn’t going to happen!! I thought to myself, maybe he initially wanted to do it on this trip, but perhaps he had to push it back because the ring wasn’t ready and that’s why he had not yet asked my dad for his blessing/approval. That scale shifted from 7 or 8 out of 10 to 1 or 2 haha…or maybe zero.

So here we are, a few days before our trip, almost certain the proposal wasn’t going to happen as I had originally suspected…I was slightly disappointed but then became extremely curious….I wondered WHEN he would do it?! We have a trip planned to Cabo in August, so I thought oh ya, maybe he will do it then. Or he might do it locally because SoCal is beautiful! Honestly, it didn’t really matter where or when…but it was more so the anxiety of NOT KNOWING!!! (Can you tell, I don’t do well with unknowns?!)

Being the fashionista that I am, I packed a few outfits I wanted to shoot on our trip and packed two dresses (one white from VICI- for the festival, which ended up being the dress that I wore on the day we got engaged! and one royal blue floral dress from Revolve- for a nice dinner). I love both of the dresses equally [important fact for later] haha and didn’t think anything more. I guess in my mind, since I thought he would propose at the beach, IF THERE WAS ANY CHANCE this is happening, the blue dress would look great for the beach!

Many lengthy paragraphs later….now this takes us to Thursday, May 23, 2019, THE DAY MY FUTURE HUBBY PROPOSED TO ME!!! [CLIFF HANGER AHEAD] haha

To find out more, come back for Part II! Didn’t want to make this blog post 100 miles long! Hope you enjoyed reading so far! I also wanted to document this so we will always remember this very special time in our lives.

Love you babes! xoxo Kat

Tag: engagementstory

How He popped the big Q – Part II

How He Popped the Big Q – Part I