Engagement Recap: Part I - The Proposal and a Party

If there was a post Mr. Journey would not like, I think this one is it.  Why?  Because I will tell you, dear readers, the story of our engagement.  It's not the stuff movies are made of but for me, the most important part is the person I'm marrying and I wouldn't have anyone but him.

I said before we moved through our relationship pretty quickly.  I thought we would date for a month or so, then officially become boyfriend-girlfriend.  Probably date for a couple of years, then move in together, and then he'd pop the question - all in all, maybe a 3-4 relationship?  Wellllll, it went more like, officially became bf-gf after about a month, we said "I love you" around the three month mark, then he 'accidentally' asked me to marry him around late April 2011 (4 months in).  We were in bed one morning and he looked down at me and asked, "You want to get married?"

...er, I swear it was a lot sweeter and romantic than how I described it.  Anyway, we decided to keep it to ourselves until we put a ring on it.

Hear the rest after the jump!




One weekend in the summer he thought we should go ring shopping but he wanted to make clear this would only be a "starter ring" - I guess just a place warmer until he saved up the money.  I kept telling him I don't need anything fancy, but he was insistent.  Anyway, we picked out this pear-shaped ring (I don't know the carat...maybe .5?  Less?) on a white gold band.  Personally, I love it:

{Personal Picture by my cousin K; August 2011}

I love the simple, thin band and the pear/teardrop is my favorite shape.  I have pretty tiny fingers (this is a size 4 1/2) so any bigger actually didn't look that great on me.  All in all it cost under $500.

We ate a simple dinner afterwards; as we exited onto the street, he looked at me and hesitantly went, "So...do I...do I get down on one knee?"

Ahaha it felt kind of awkward at the time so I told him to just put the ring on.  To this day I think he feels bad about the ring and the proposal.  I actually wouldn't mind if he saved the money for the wedding or a mortgage on our future house.  He can always upgrade later in life, like a 10-year anniversary present or something.  If anything, the only thing I'd like is a more romantic proposal do-over!

Later that month, my oldest uncle on my mother's side was celebrating his 90th birthday in Sacramento.  Since most of my mom's family would be up for the birthday anyway, we decided to throw a casual engagement party during the day at my brother's house.  The next day we'd throw the second party for my dad's side - I have a big family so both sides in one house would be too many people!

First two pictures courtesy of my talented cousin, K.

{Personal Picture; August 2011} haha I look so happy

{Personal Picture; August 2011} My mom's side of the family is a goofy bunch... this is my mom (the yellow shirt) with all her sisters.  My mom is exactly the middle child - 2 older brother, 2 older sisters, then 2 younger brothers, and 2 younger sisters!

{Personal Picture; August 2011} The guy with the dark shirt on the left of Mr. Journey is my bro!  We're playing Pandemic, awesome game.

{Personal Picture; August 2011} A very, very small portion of my dad's side of the family

I love my family - I love that we're a small country and so silly.  You'd think with such a large family there would be tons of drama but everyone is so chill.  And they all love Mr. Journey <3

Next time, our official Indian engagement!  How did your proposal go down?