We're Engaged
I know it's been a long time since I've written an entry, but there's been an awful lot that has happened since then, and it seemed appropriate to get everyone up to speed ...
... As most of you know, Katherine and I have been together for some time now, and have thoroughly enjoyed each other's company. We've gone to movies, concerts, bowling, the zoo, Cedar Point, etc.. When we're not out having fun, we have just as much fun staying indoors and making baby s'mores over tealights, doing puzzles or just acting goofy. Most importantly though, we're able to talk to each other about everything... It's crazy how comfortable we feel with each other.. I honestly don't think I ever expected to be as close to someone as I am to Kath, and I feel so blessed that she's been brought into my life. :)
So one night her and I had a really long and meaningful conversation.. and we both realized then that we were meant for each other, that God had led us together and that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. We started asking each other questions about how we wanted to raise kids, who would handle chores, what we wanted to do with our religion, etc. And with each question, we grew closer. I don't think I got back to my apartment until 3am, we just had so much to talk about!
I had actually informally been educating myself on engagement rings a few days before that conversation, but the next day, I started looking at ads in the yellow pages for jewelers, and realized the gravity of what I was doing. Was I actually going to start looking for engagement rings?? How crazy is that?? Crazy as it was, I couldn't have been more sure.
After about a month of looking I had learned all I needed to about the engagement ring and knew what I wanted to get for Kath. I walked into one store, and the second ring that they showed me was exactly the setting I wanted to get.. I gave a slight upgrade to the center diamond, and went with 6-prongs instead of 4.. and in less than a week it was sized and in my possession.
Oh wait, the ring size.. that's another fun story.. The day that we had our conversation, I had actually played with her ring a little bit. I had slipped it on my pinky finger, and knew about how it fit me. The day I first set out on my hunt, I went to a jeweler and used their ring sizers to figure out that she was a size 5. Maybe a week later I remembered I had a fake ring that was a size 6. I tried that, and it was just a tiny bit bigger, but still pretty much felt right. So, I knew her size was no smaller than a 5, but could have been up to a 6. I decided to call on her friends Beth & Katrina to help me out. They were sneaky, and managed to find out her ring size as a 5 without Kath knowing what they were doing. It didn't much matter though because a few days later, Kath was looking at her hands saying "You know, I have really small hands.. I only wear a size 5 ring" .. I just laughed. "I already knew that!!" :)
Anyway, the weekend after I got the ring, we went to a wedding down in Columbus.. well, that's a whole story in itself. They had the wedding outside, in ~ 84 degree weather. The bridesmaids were all wearing black.. Late in the ceremony a little bee started annoying some of the bridesmaids.. one of the groomsmen was just dripping with sweat from wearing his tux. Kath and I both agreed: no outdoor wedding.
Then the reception was held in a conservatory they had there. While the members of the bridal party were having their pictures taken, they gave us time to wander around the conservatory.. Although it was basically a giant greenhouse, we got to see a big koi pond, a room with butterflies, a room with cacti, some birds, etc. The reception was held in a big room with plants but no insects/birds or anything. It was a little cooler than outside, but not by much as we were still in the greenhouse. Although the location was hot, there was no denying that it was definitely very beautiful. It was a little weird though.. they didn't do any bouquet or garter belt toss, they didn't have any dancing.. etc. It was a unique wedding for sure.
Alright, so anyway, the next day Kath came back to Cleveland with me so we could go see the Cleveland Orchestra playing. While we were waiting outside in the grass for others to show up, we were both getting pretty wound up and I ended up making her a ring out of a blade of grass and gave it to her.. she actually wore it the whole night too.. heh. I find it very hard to keep anything secret from her, and I think this was just my secret starting to come to the surface. I knew I wanted to propose to her very shortly.
I had a bunch of ideas for how I wanted to propose, and I wasn't really sure which I would use. One of the first things that crossed my mind was to take her to the place where we had our first date. Sadly though, when I went to check it out, I found they were completely closed! So, in the end, I decided upon this:
Friday evening I went to ask for her parents' blessing.. I was so nervous my hands were shaking, but I got out what I wanted to say, and we had a nice long talk. Meanwhile, Kath was out with her friends. I figured if her family were anything like me, they wouldn't be able to keep the secret in either, so I dropped off a bouquet of roses while I was there, to celebrate our 6 month anniversary (of when we committed ourselves to each other).. That way, she would definitely know I had been there, and none of us would have to lie about it. She just wouldn't be completely sure of the main reason I had been there.
She was going to be coming to my apartment Saturday morning, and I had thought about waiting until the evening, but I just couldn't hold it in any longer. I lit a bunch of candles all around my apartment.. and when I saw her arrive, I started some music playing so when she walked in the door, she saw the candles and heard the music.. And then we danced for a little bit (we were both a little disappointed we didn't get the chance to at the wedding).. then I had her sit down, and I got one on knee and asked her to marry me. There were tears, quivering lips, shaking hands, etc. - it was all so exciting! :) Oh, and she said 'yes' before I could even open the little box with the ring. :)
We decided we needed to go out to eat and celebrate our engagement together.. I was looking up some information on the Cheesecake Factory online, and Kath was standing behind me.. All the sudden I hear her ask in a little voice "Am I on fire?" I turn around and the entire back of her skirt is in flames!! It was spreading so quickly, she took it off and threw it to the floor where I found the closest thing I could find to extinguish the fire. That happened to be a library book which is now slightly burned. :) I got the fire out and then made sure that she was okay. She was shaking from fright, but handled the situation very well. All things considering, Kath was fine. She had some small burns on her leg and foot, but a couple ice packs and some Advil took care of that. We laughed about it for a good half hour, and continued sporadically laughing about it throughout the day. It certainly was unforgettable. :) I gave her some of my sweatpants to wear while I went out to the mall to find her a new skirt. We finally made it to the Cheesecake Factory but no stories there could ever compare to setting your fiancées skirt on fire! :o)
That night I drove back with her to Greenwich to stay at her parents' house and then in the morning we went to church to announce our engagement. Her little 8 year old brother was hilarious. I got him all excited by telling him we'd be brother-in-laws.. and then later I guess he was going around the church telling people that he was going to be an uncle! Ahhh! Wrong choice of words, Bryce! :) I guess he was trying to say that EVENTUALLY he would be when we have kids, so we had to tell him not to tell people that. We have no plans for children until we've enjoyed many years of marriage together. :)
So anyway, it's been fun telling people of our engagement and starting to think about wedding plans. We plan to have the wedding in Greenwich, OH with the unofficial date of June 7th, 2008.. (Which is also easy to remember 06-07-08) :) Thanks to everyone who has offered us congratulations - we're both very excited to start our united life together. I love you Kath! :)
... As most of you know, Katherine and I have been together for some time now, and have thoroughly enjoyed each other's company. We've gone to movies, concerts, bowling, the zoo, Cedar Point, etc.. When we're not out having fun, we have just as much fun staying indoors and making baby s'mores over tealights, doing puzzles or just acting goofy. Most importantly though, we're able to talk to each other about everything... It's crazy how comfortable we feel with each other.. I honestly don't think I ever expected to be as close to someone as I am to Kath, and I feel so blessed that she's been brought into my life. :)
So one night her and I had a really long and meaningful conversation.. and we both realized then that we were meant for each other, that God had led us together and that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. We started asking each other questions about how we wanted to raise kids, who would handle chores, what we wanted to do with our religion, etc. And with each question, we grew closer. I don't think I got back to my apartment until 3am, we just had so much to talk about!
I had actually informally been educating myself on engagement rings a few days before that conversation, but the next day, I started looking at ads in the yellow pages for jewelers, and realized the gravity of what I was doing. Was I actually going to start looking for engagement rings?? How crazy is that?? Crazy as it was, I couldn't have been more sure.
After about a month of looking I had learned all I needed to about the engagement ring and knew what I wanted to get for Kath. I walked into one store, and the second ring that they showed me was exactly the setting I wanted to get.. I gave a slight upgrade to the center diamond, and went with 6-prongs instead of 4.. and in less than a week it was sized and in my possession.
Oh wait, the ring size.. that's another fun story.. The day that we had our conversation, I had actually played with her ring a little bit. I had slipped it on my pinky finger, and knew about how it fit me. The day I first set out on my hunt, I went to a jeweler and used their ring sizers to figure out that she was a size 5. Maybe a week later I remembered I had a fake ring that was a size 6. I tried that, and it was just a tiny bit bigger, but still pretty much felt right. So, I knew her size was no smaller than a 5, but could have been up to a 6. I decided to call on her friends Beth & Katrina to help me out. They were sneaky, and managed to find out her ring size as a 5 without Kath knowing what they were doing. It didn't much matter though because a few days later, Kath was looking at her hands saying "You know, I have really small hands.. I only wear a size 5 ring" .. I just laughed. "I already knew that!!" :)
Anyway, the weekend after I got the ring, we went to a wedding down in Columbus.. well, that's a whole story in itself. They had the wedding outside, in ~ 84 degree weather. The bridesmaids were all wearing black.. Late in the ceremony a little bee started annoying some of the bridesmaids.. one of the groomsmen was just dripping with sweat from wearing his tux. Kath and I both agreed: no outdoor wedding.
Then the reception was held in a conservatory they had there. While the members of the bridal party were having their pictures taken, they gave us time to wander around the conservatory.. Although it was basically a giant greenhouse, we got to see a big koi pond, a room with butterflies, a room with cacti, some birds, etc. The reception was held in a big room with plants but no insects/birds or anything. It was a little cooler than outside, but not by much as we were still in the greenhouse. Although the location was hot, there was no denying that it was definitely very beautiful. It was a little weird though.. they didn't do any bouquet or garter belt toss, they didn't have any dancing.. etc. It was a unique wedding for sure.
Alright, so anyway, the next day Kath came back to Cleveland with me so we could go see the Cleveland Orchestra playing. While we were waiting outside in the grass for others to show up, we were both getting pretty wound up and I ended up making her a ring out of a blade of grass and gave it to her.. she actually wore it the whole night too.. heh. I find it very hard to keep anything secret from her, and I think this was just my secret starting to come to the surface. I knew I wanted to propose to her very shortly.
I had a bunch of ideas for how I wanted to propose, and I wasn't really sure which I would use. One of the first things that crossed my mind was to take her to the place where we had our first date. Sadly though, when I went to check it out, I found they were completely closed! So, in the end, I decided upon this:
Friday evening I went to ask for her parents' blessing.. I was so nervous my hands were shaking, but I got out what I wanted to say, and we had a nice long talk. Meanwhile, Kath was out with her friends. I figured if her family were anything like me, they wouldn't be able to keep the secret in either, so I dropped off a bouquet of roses while I was there, to celebrate our 6 month anniversary (of when we committed ourselves to each other).. That way, she would definitely know I had been there, and none of us would have to lie about it. She just wouldn't be completely sure of the main reason I had been there.
She was going to be coming to my apartment Saturday morning, and I had thought about waiting until the evening, but I just couldn't hold it in any longer. I lit a bunch of candles all around my apartment.. and when I saw her arrive, I started some music playing so when she walked in the door, she saw the candles and heard the music.. And then we danced for a little bit (we were both a little disappointed we didn't get the chance to at the wedding).. then I had her sit down, and I got one on knee and asked her to marry me. There were tears, quivering lips, shaking hands, etc. - it was all so exciting! :) Oh, and she said 'yes' before I could even open the little box with the ring. :)
We decided we needed to go out to eat and celebrate our engagement together.. I was looking up some information on the Cheesecake Factory online, and Kath was standing behind me.. All the sudden I hear her ask in a little voice "Am I on fire?" I turn around and the entire back of her skirt is in flames!! It was spreading so quickly, she took it off and threw it to the floor where I found the closest thing I could find to extinguish the fire. That happened to be a library book which is now slightly burned. :) I got the fire out and then made sure that she was okay. She was shaking from fright, but handled the situation very well. All things considering, Kath was fine. She had some small burns on her leg and foot, but a couple ice packs and some Advil took care of that. We laughed about it for a good half hour, and continued sporadically laughing about it throughout the day. It certainly was unforgettable. :) I gave her some of my sweatpants to wear while I went out to the mall to find her a new skirt. We finally made it to the Cheesecake Factory but no stories there could ever compare to setting your fiancées skirt on fire! :o)
That night I drove back with her to Greenwich to stay at her parents' house and then in the morning we went to church to announce our engagement. Her little 8 year old brother was hilarious. I got him all excited by telling him we'd be brother-in-laws.. and then later I guess he was going around the church telling people that he was going to be an uncle! Ahhh! Wrong choice of words, Bryce! :) I guess he was trying to say that EVENTUALLY he would be when we have kids, so we had to tell him not to tell people that. We have no plans for children until we've enjoyed many years of marriage together. :)
So anyway, it's been fun telling people of our engagement and starting to think about wedding plans. We plan to have the wedding in Greenwich, OH with the unofficial date of June 7th, 2008.. (Which is also easy to remember 06-07-08) :) Thanks to everyone who has offered us congratulations - we're both very excited to start our united life together. I love you Kath! :)
Labels: engagement, fire, kath, marriage, proposal, ring, wedding
