Our Love Story Part 4- The Proposal Story

So now that you have a little background on Skye and I, you will definitely be able to better appreciate my proposal story! It’s so ironic that I decided to do this Love Story series at the time that I did, and during that time I got engaged. But like I said, now that you have some background you will get a kick out of the proposal story! I’m not a mushy person at all, so I have tried to keep the details to a minimum on the blog. However, this boy just has an uncanny ability to make me gush so I hope I didn’t bore you or disgust you while telling our story. If that didn’t maybe this last piece of the puzzle will push you over the edge – HAHA!

If you need to play catch up or just refresh your memory here is Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3.

In the months leading up to the engagement, I want to be honest about how I was feeling. I was starting to get pissy and anxious about why it hadn’t happened yet. I know I’ve talked on here about us being in such a good place, and we were, but still a girl wants to get married after being together for so long, ya know? There have probably been about 4 points in our entire relationship that I’ve felt this way. Nothing in particular within our relationship has seemed to trigger these feelings, just the sudden uproar of engagements, weddings, babies around me. It’s funny because Skye & I actually got into a fight about 3 weeks before he popped the question about why he seemed unable to make this commitment. I was feeling fed up and I basically said I wasn’t going to wait around forever on this to happen. Little did I know, he’d already bought my ring. I feel really dumb about this now, but hindsight is always 20/20.

Saturday March 3, 2012 – 8 years, 2 months & 2.5 weeks after I met Skye for the very first time-

This Saturday began just like any other Saturday that Skye is off work. As I’ve mentioned before his job calls for rotating shifts, so we only end up getting about every 3^rd weekend off together. It’s just part of it and we knew this going into it. However it’s is still fairly new for us – since December 2011- so there has definitely been some adjusting going on. Needless to say, I am thrilled when I have him off on a Saturday! If you remember from this we had plans that day to take sweet Tilly to a little festival downtown called Mardi Growl. If you follow me at all (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, here) then you know we had a blast at Mardi Growl! It was so much fun and it was a gorgeous day! We go home afterwards and I start getting into my normal Saturday routine of cleaning and laundry. About 3 o’clock that afternoon, we are just sitting around the house watching TV and Skye asks me if I’d like to go on a date that night. Of course I say sure and begin asking all my questions. What should I wear? Should I dress up? Where are we going? I’m told that it’s nothing special, just a simple date since we haven’t been on one in a little while. I’m wearing the same outfit that I wore to Mardi Growl – jeans, a button up flannel shirt and my black sparkle Toms. (picture from Mardi Growl).

We decide on a late dinner and leave the house about 7:30 with “no destination in mind”. Skye is driving and before I know it we are pulling into the Italian restaurant where we first met & where we ate the night he gave me my promise ring. Those are the only two times we’ve ever eaten at this place – although it’s incredibly delicious. At this point, I become a little suspicious because it seems this date could be more than ordinary? I bring this up and he assures me that it’s no big deal. He just wanted to bring me here because he felt like he hadn’t done anything special for me in a while. I’m almost waiting on friends/family to jump out with a surprise or something… Once we begin to order and nothing strange happens, I just believe his story that nothing is going on. We eat a fabulous dinner of pasta and have a few drinks. (Looking back, it’s funny because a huge warning sign to me should have been that Skye was pressing me to order a bottle of wine. He’s typically not a wine drinker so I turned down his offer and he settled for a beer and I got a mixed drink. He was adamant about getting an entire bottle of wine though. Probably to calm his nerves- Oh well!) The conversation is flowing like normal and our date is going great. When it comes time to leave, I ask if he wants me to look up movies playing or what the plan is. I’m told he has something in mind, but he wants to keep it a surprise. I go along with this, without too much of a fuss. I’m a planner you know so I like to be in on our plans. I’m all for a good surprise, but sometimes it’s hard for me to go along with. In the car we listen to an old Jagged Edge cd that we always used to listen to when we first started dating. “Our Song” Healing by Jagged Edge, is on this cd, and I just thought he was being so sweet and nostalgic. As we begin to drive towards Skye’s hometown – about 30 minutes from where we were eating – my questions begin to pop back up. Where are we going? Why are we going towards this town? Who are we meeting? I couldn’t help it. I’m naturally like that, and I had no idea what was in store for me.

Finally, we arrived at our destination. An overlook at a dam in Skye’s hometown that we used to always hang out at in our early days of dating. We used to fish from the bank of the lake by the dam, play tennis at the courts by the dam, hang out in the park that runs up to the lake on a sunny day, make out in the parking lot at dark (TMI probably sorry, but it’s true!). We would literally spend hours here at the beginning of our courtship. So anyhow we end up at the overlook of the dam, and by now it’s getting dark outside so the view of the dam is so pretty from the overlook area. He asks if I want to get out of the car for a little bit and we get out to stand in the shine of the headlights. The sky is gorgeous that night and from here we could see all kinds of pretty stars. This is when I really begin to think something was up because homeboy starts acting 20 different kinds of awkward. He can’t put a full sentence together without long pauses – he starts talking about our relationship and then stops. He’s looking around everywhere and he seems nervous as hell. It throws me off because my Skye is rarely awkward & nervous. He’s typically the epitome of calm and collected. Honest to God, I thought he might be trying to find a way to break up with me. As I mentioned above, we had gotten into a heated argument a few weeks earlier about the progression of our relationship so I just knew that had gotten to him. Somehow, he starts to pull it together a little better and by now we are facing each other holding hands. He begins to twist my promise ring around my finger and asks me if I remember the day he gave it to me, talks about how long we’ve been together and how much he appreciates me being so dedicated to him throughout this police academy process, etc. I can hear him talking but in my head I’m terrified of where he’s going with his conversation.

Then, much to my surprise, he gets down on one knee and pulls out a box with a HUGE blinging ring. “Nikki, will you marry me?” I screamed, started crying, then laughing and managed to say are you serious??? I half cried-half laughed some more and jumped into his arms to hug him. Keep in mind he’s still down on one knee. I couldn’t believe it, my head was spinning, and I was so taken aback! Then he says “does that mean yes?” I asked him if he thought I would say no, and his response was no, but I’d still like to hear a yes. Of course I screamed YES and more tears came.

Now everything made a little more sense. He took me an old school date to the restaurant that has a very special meaning to us, pumped me up while listening to music that takes me back to our first year together, delivered the most important speech a girl hears in her life in a setting that we’ve already made many memories together. That’s why he wanted a bottle of wine at dinner, that’s why he kept the headlights on in the car so I could see my ring in the dark (even thought I insisted to tell him that his battery was going to die from it). Everything became so clear all of a sudden! It’s hard to tell it and get all the details right because it feels like a whirlwind now. It was honestly so thoughtful and meaningful to me. I gave him rapid fire questions all night and he managed to dodge them all and still give me the surprise of a lifetime.

Everyone keeps asking me if I had any idea it was coming. We had looked at rings maybe 4 times over the past year, but never picking out "the one". He picked out my ring all by himself! He’d planned this for about a month- waiting on the right day to spend together, buying the ring, talking to my dad, brother and some friends. All the while, I was clueless. Looking back, I guess I can see signals that something was up that night, but in the moment my mind never went there. It was the most amazing moment! Of course on the car ride home, we call and text everybody and make it Facebook official.

I don’t think I’ve stopped smiling at all since that day almost 3 weeks ago. It feels SO DAMN GOOD to finally be planning the wedding of my dreams to the man I always knew I’d end up with! The advice I’ve been given from most people is to try and savor this sweet time in my life, so that’s what I’m trying to do. I don't ever want to be that bridezilla girl who gets all caught up in the planning. Not to say that I will never get stressed out, but all I want is to look beautiful for my future husband and for all of our important guests – the people who have loved, guided and supported us along this 8 year journey- to have the time of their lives celebrating with us. The rest will fall into place.