Engagement Story

I Said YES!!!

I never imagined that I would be engaged to be married at 19 years old.  I’ve always wanted to get married young, but never thought that would be before I was 23.  I had no idea that getting a job at Starbucks would lead me to meet my love.  I definitely never imagined that just going out one day after work would result in a relationship that will last a lifetime.  I am so thankful that God planned out our love story so perfectly and is continuing to write it.  Here is our engagement story! 

Earlier that week, David told me he took the day off from work that Thursday so we could finally have a date.  (We hadn’t had a date in several weeks) So I was super excited!  I had a feeling that engagement would be coming soon, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up.

On Thursday, July 21 I woke up bright and early to get ready and make my makeup look really pretty.  Even if we weren’t going to get engaged this day, I knew there would be plenty of photo   (girls, you understand) Anyway, then I drove to pick David up from the car shop while he got something fixed on his car.  How romantic. Haha! Then we had to pick up my new glasses from the store.  I know off to a great start.  Oh, and to top it all off I had a killer headache and I was super dizzy! But that didn’t stop us from having a great day.

After we ran all of our errands we headed to Botanical Gardens for our date.  We went inside and used the restroom and started looking at the pictures on the walls.  During this time, David’s phone was blowing up!  I didn’t say anything, but I was on the lookout for anything suspicious.  We then went outside and started walking all around the gardens.  We love taking walks outside and Botanical Gardens is probably our favorite place to do this.  It was so hot that we had to keep taking breaks and finding shady benches to rest on.  The gardens were so pretty and they even had a butterfly house where we went inside and were surrounded by hundreds of butterflies.  After a few hours, we headed back to the car to get our lunch.  At this point I had completely given up on the idea that we would be getting engaged that day, which was fine because we enjoyed just getting to spend time together.

When we got to the car for our lunch, I started to get in because I thought we were leaving.  David told me not to get in the car because we were going to eat there.  I was surprised!  I had no idea.  So we get our lunch and walk up to the big hill where we love to sit and watch the airplanes take off and land.  When we get up there, David starts setting up a phone tripod to put his phone on so we can take a picture.  He told me to sit in front of the phone and he was going to try out this new camera clicker he got.  It was supposed to work where he clicked the button and the phone took a picture.

So he got everything set up and then he comes to sit next to me.  We smile as he tries to click the button with the clicker, but it isn’t working.  I try to press the button too, and it just wouldn’t click.  Still having my headache, I look away and rest my head while he tries to figure it out.  I was getting annoyed!  Once David is done messing with it, I look back at him and he says “what is this?”  I look down and my mouth drops wide open! I couldn’t even believe what I was seeing! A gorgeous ring in his hand!  I screamed and screamed some more.  He got on one knee and proposed.  Of course I said yes!

This ring was his grandmother’s ring who passed when David was a young boy.  I feel so honored and blessed that he chose to give this ring to me.

I asked him right afterwards, “Do my parents know? Does everybody know?”  This was very important to me.  He not only asked my parents for their blessing, but he told my entire family and his entire family when he was planning to propose.

We were just so so happy!  We finished up our lunch while we smiled and laughed talking about how real this is.  We are actually getting MARRIED!!!!

Crazy side note.  When I was in high school, before David and I started dating, I had to write a futuristic memoir.  This was something that could happen in the future, but hadn’t happened yet.  I wrote about my dream proposal.  And guess where it took place?!  Botanical Gardens!!!  David had no idea!

We then left Botanical Gardens and went to visit our friends at a couple different Starbucks stores.   

Then we went to his grandparents’ house where they had decorated the house and we all got to celebrate and have cake and punch!  Something really cool happened while we were there.  His grandparents got us a card that had a scripture in it that has meant a lot to us throughout our relationship.

“Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens” James 1:17 NLT

David and I have studied this verse and all of James 1 in great depth.  This verse means so much to us.  Many times we will go down to the beach and look up at the stars and just marvel at the work of our God.  The fact that this scripture was in the card was amazing!

After that, we headed to my house.  David said that he promised my parents we would stop by.  So we got to my house and my mom had decorated with purple streamers and had a cake ready for us, and flowers on the table from my grandpa.  As soon as we walked in the door, my mom grabbed us both for a picture.  All of a sudden, my brother and sister popped out from the door right behind us yelling “Surprise!!! We’re here!”  This was the craziest surprise at all, they live 3-4 hours away and drove to me just to celebrate!

Later on we all went down to the beach and stayed outside to enjoy the beautiful night, when we saw the moon looking gorgeous as ever.  And it even had a tint of red like a blood moon.  This is so special to us because of the verse I explained earlier.  We know that God’s hand was in this throughout the day.

It was perfect!  David did everything that was important to me.  We were able to spend the day together and have a real date, he had my whole family involved, along with his whole family.  We have the whole thing on video and we have pictures from the entire day.

At the end of the day, it’s not about the perfection of the proposal.  It’s about the fact that we are going to get to spend the rest of our lives together.  We are committed to each other and we couldn’t be happier.  We are so blessed to have the support of our loved ones through this journey.  And we are so thankful that God has brought us together!

Now… Let the wedding planning begin!

Lots of Love,

Dani xoxo