Our Proposal Story - 05.15.10

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of the sweet, sweet day when Ian asked me to marry him!

What girl doesn't like a good proposal story?  Here's my recount of May 15, 2010.

Ian and I decided to escape to the mountains for a little R&R on Saturday, May 15.  We hopped in the car with our furbaby Drake and headed up to Ian’s family mountain house in Boone, NC.  The weather was great and we spent the day at an outdoor art festival in downtown Blowing Rock (hint #1: I knew something might be up because it was Ian's idea to go to this festival).  Then we stopped by the nearby outlets to do some shopping (also Ian's idea, hint #2). 

Suddenly, the sky began to turn grey and we knew a storm was blowing in.  We headed back home and, funny anecdote, Ian was pulled over by a cop on our way home for an expired registration tag due to his recent change of address.  Looking back at this, I knew this was probably the last thing he needed at that point!

We arrived back home right before the sky opened up, and so we began getting ready for the evening.  Ian told me that we’d go out for dinner, but that he couldn’t decide between two restaurants and we wouldn’t need reservations at either.  (This was the point where I thought NO proposal was going to happen.  I knew if he was going to propose, we'd have reservations.)  True to form, Ian was done getting ready for the evening well before I was.  (I also noticed at this point that he was dressed pretty casually in a button-down and khakis.  Another strike against my proposal hunch.)  He told me nonchalantly that he would head downstairs and enjoy some music and a drink until I was ready, and to just take my time.  I asked him to bring me up a drink, and he said all they had in the house was beer.  So he brought me up a Coors Light.

I finished my makeup and hair and walked downstairs like a true classy lady with my Coors Light in hand.  I turned the corner to see that the light in the kitchen was off.  Finding this a little strange, I turned another corner and found that the lights in the great room were also off and there was my handsome Ian, standing at the back of the room in front of the French doors leading to an outside veranda.  The doors were wide open and the thunderstorm was going on in full force behind him.  Leading me to him was a path of rose petals and tealight candles – perfectly romantic.  Our favorite song was playing on the stereo and filling up the entire room.  I stood there frozen, and thank goodness a voice inside my head said "April honey, put the beer down."  I didn't want to get engaged holding a Coors Light.



Don't worry, I snapped this pic AFTER saying yes! 
I wanted to recreate it to always remember
what it looked like.


I made my way down the path to Ian.  He said really lovely things to me and took a knee and asked me to be his wife.  Of course I said YES!  He pulled out a bottle of champagne which his mother had hidden for him along with champagne glasses during a recent trip she took to the mountain house.  We walked out on the veranda and stood in the rain and popped the cork off into the night sky.  We toasted each other and our new engaged status!

Ian then told me that we were not going to either of the restaurants he'd previously mentioned, but that we did, in fact, have reservations at The Best Cellar and that the folks there knew that we were a newly-engaged couple!   Oh, and he pulled a sportscoat out from where he had been hiding it from me.  He knew it would be a tip-off!

We spent the rest of the evenings talking to our immediate family members and just enjoying each other’s company.  His brother called the restaurant and had a bottle of champagne sent to us.  It was a truly magical evening.

The next morning we enjoyed coffee out on the veranda and spoke with aunts/uncles, grandparents, and more friends on the phone.  We drove back to Charlotte and met up with a bunch of friends for a Sunday afternoon beer to celebrate our engagement.  It was the perfect end to the weekend!

What's your proposal story?