Introduction and I'm ENGAGED! UPDATE: PICTURES! VIDEO!

[MainStMandy]

Awww what a great story!!!

 

[Donald'sGirl]

That was fantastic! What a great proposal!! Just curious but happened with your SIL and brother after the proposal? Did they go to dinner with you?

 

[Belle913]

My SIL & Brother did some personal photography and videography. They followed us around when we did our professional photo shoot. Then yes, they went to dinner with me and my DF.

 

[Belle913]

Thank you so much everyone for all your wonderful messages. My DF did do a wonderful job and it totally fit every possible dream I have ever had of that moment. He will be on here shortly to give his side of the story. Again thank you for reading and for all of your replies they are greatly appreciated.

 

[bridetobe789]

Oh my congrats again!! That proposal was amazing!! I can't wait to see pics!

 

[Donald'sGirl]

My SIL & Brother did some personal photography and videography. They followed us around when we did our professional photo shoot. Then yes, they went to dinner with me and my DF.

Oh that is nice!! They were so much a part of it in the beginning of the story and then after you arrived they kind of disappeared so I was curious.

Now, where are those pictures??

 

[DisWishes720]

I am sitting in my office literally about to cry! I am soo happy for you! This is an amazing proposal, he definitely knows what he's doing! Can't wait to see some pictures! Congrats!!

 

[Disneychix]

Wow, what a story. Just the proposal sounds so nice that I can't imagine what you'll have to plan for a wedding

Congrat's to both of you!

 

[Beast913]

I guess it all began 14 months ago. Jewls and I are students at Texas A&M University, and I had a guitar I really wanted on lay away. After I had paid it off I realized that all the money I made from work was excess, as most of my living costs were paid by loans and things like that. So I thought to myself, if I want to ever propose to this girl, I'd better start saving! (Keep in mind, this is before our 6th Anniversary, and I proposed on our 7th.) So I start putting away money. If I got a bonus from work, I put that in the account. If I did extra things like judge debate tournaments I would put that in the account. I did all of this in secret, and Jewls never found out. I knew that Jewls wanted a Tiffany & Co. ring, even though she said it was not a requirement. But, I wanted her dream to come true, and I knew I could settle for nothing less. It was very expensive, but regardless, I set my goal to propose by our 7th Anniversary.

As money continued to be put into my account, I made it all the way to this past May, without Jewls knowing, or my parents. My brother knew but I knew he could keep it a secret. Now that I almost had enough for the ring, I needed the perfect proposal. I could only imagine doing something very over the top, I'm a hopeless romantic. So I started scheming. I made an initial plan to do it in Houston, as it was close to us. I wanted violin players, a horse carriage, and to send Jewls to the spa during the day. I start calling vendors and getting prices, and finally come up with two vendors and a spa that I want to do it at. I decide that I want Jewls' and I to look our best when I propose, so I get a gift card for her to buy a dress and shoes during the morning, before the spa. But there was only one question, how in the world do I cover up and explain all of this. This was something I could not figure out on my own, so I enlisted the help of Jewls' SIL, Kristin.

Kristin had some sliver of an idea that I was proposing soon, but didn't know when or the details. I e-mailed her to explain what I had planned, but I didn't know how to connect it. She came up with an idea. She told me her and Jewls' brother had a dating anniversary very close to ours, so she told me that Scott and I should plan a "girls day out" for us and that we are doing this as a joint surprise for both Kristin and Jewls. I thought this was a great idea, and she asks if she can tell Scott, and I said of course!

About a week later Kristin starts texting me telling me I need to talk to Scott. I think, "Great, here comes the big brother talk!" So I finally get a chance to call him, and I said, "So I guess you know why I'm calling." And he says, "Ummm, No." Oh fantastic! Kristin set me up, and Scott had no idea what was going on! So I explain everything to Scott, and we did have that big brother talk. He liked the plan, and Kristin and Scott agree to come to Houston to pull this off, and even plan on renting a car to drive around Houston in. I pay the vendors in the coming weeks, and it looks like everything is going as planned!

Coming up: How do I get Julie away to pay for the ring? And, Oh no....a hurricane.

 

[Luv2Diz]

Great story so far......I'm also waiting to see the pics!

 

[Belle913]

About all the picture, as Chris has just informed you we are students at Texas A&M so with that in mind. Between the 2 of us we have 4 exams within the next 2 days so we will not have time to post any pictures till at least Sat. Sept 20th. Hope everyone is enjoying Chris side of the story i will give it back over to him now!

 

[PrincessMonkey]

Your usernames Belle913 and Beast913 are very cute! I adored your proposal story, and I can empathize with your wait before you were engaged. (My DBF and I have been together for 6 years, and we've been best friends for 10 years; we've traveled around the world and Disney world together, and we know it's meant to be a happily ever after. I think Dis will be among the first to know, lol)

Belle, your initial statements about wanting to post your proposal story on DIS has also been my thought, and it's so nice to read about this happening to you! I bet you two are a couple that are destined to be together, and I wish you all the best! This is such an exciting time in your lives. Enjoy it! We readers have plenty of time to just imagine how beautiful you looked in your Belle gown and how wonderfully planned was this entire setup. Excellent details in your write-ups, and outstanding planning, Beast!

Congratulations!

 

[mla1977]

Ok, I'm subscribing so I don't lose this again!

 

[Beast913]

As we were getting closer to the day, and as I was communicating with Tiffany's and my vendors through my secret e-mail I had set up, I realized I needed a couple of days to go back to our hometown to talk with her parents, my parents, and a day to go to Houston to pay off the ring, and pick up the giftcards I would need for her to buy a dress and go to the Spa & Salon. At the same time, we were planning a trip to Michigan. Jewls' oldest brother lives in Michigan, and my mother and I were going to visit family up there (my mom is from Detroit) and Jewls and I decided to visit law and grad schools at the University of Michigan, Michigan State, and Wayne State. The trip was great fun, but on the way back to Dallas, Kristin wanted Jewls to stay with her for three days, which was fine with me, I needed the three days to get everything done! My mother and I flew standby, Jewls had a ticket. Of course, my mother and I couldn't get on the flight home as there wasn't enough room, so Jewls went back on her own to meet Kristin at the airport. After she left, my mother and I sat down and had a breakfast sandwhich, and over breakfast I told her my plans. She wasn't really suprised at all, although she thought I was nuts for getting a Tiffany's ring, as they are expensive. We have to fly to O'Hare just to be able to fly to Love Field, we couldn't even fly into DFW from O'Hare. We drive home, and I tell my dad when I get home, he is not suprised either. At this point it is about 9 pm, and I go to visit Jewls' parents. Now, Jewls' Dad's job has him travelling a lot, and I figured I wouldn't catch him at home, and I didn't. I come knock on the door, Jewls' mom is suprised to see me. I sit her dad and say I need to speak with both of them, so she get's Jewls' father on the phone. I ask them for their permission, they were a little suprised, but gave their blessing.

I told Jewls I arrived home at 12:30, although I actually arrived home at 2 am. I didn't want her to wonder what took me so long. The next day I drive to Houston to first pay off the ring, pick up a giftcard for the dress, go by the salon and get a giftcard from there, and then go meet with the violin players to pay them the rest of what I owed them and make sure we are all on the same page. I go to Tiffany's to meet with the Sales Associate I had spoken with for like 3 months, she has three rings for me, I pick out the one I bought, and she sends it off for resizing. After that I go to the salon, speak details with them, and then head off to pay for the violins. Now the violin players were located on the southwest end of Houston, pretty far outside it actually. I thought I had a route to get home without going back in Houston, but I got lost. I finally realized after calling a friend that I was halfway to Austin, and needed to turn around. I am still driving when Jewls calls. I don't want to NOT pick up the phone, so I answer it. At the time there just happened to be some train tracks next to me, and a train drove by (for those of you not familiar with College Station, there are lots of train tracks, and one main imparticular that goes by the school) and she says, "Oh, I hear the train!". That was kind of a relief, and I get off the phone, head home, and a week and half later the ring comes in. At this point we are about 2, 1 1/2 weeks away from the proposal, and I just want to wait by, and wait for the day! But then....Hurricane Ike

Coming up: Two days to plan a whole new proposal! and Day of the Proposal.

 

[keenercam]

Congratulations to both of you! What a romantic thing you did, Chris! I can't believe all of the coordination and all the time you put into this. I am loving hearing both sides of the story. It will be so much fun to hear about your wedding planning.
Good luck on your exams! And THEN come back and post lots of pix!

 

[Donald'sGirl]

Wow Chris you did a lot of running around and planning for this proposal! It is fantastic hearing both sides of the story! I can't wait to hear the rest and see the pictures! Good luck on your exams!

 

[Beast913]

The Tuesday before the proposal before the it became obvious that Hurricane Ike was heading towards Texas. At the time, it was south of Houston, so I thought that Houston might have just bad weather instead of a direct hit, so I decided to redo a plan for indoors. I got a confirmation at a restaurant, who were going to give me a great set up, but I'm not going to tell you where it was going to be or what was going to happen quite yet, as I promised Jewls that I would still take her to dinner there (as soon as Houston opens up to the public again, geez.) So I feel better about it. Going into Wednesday and Thursday, it became very obvious that Houston was going to get hit directly. This became a huge problem. I realized I had to plan a whole new proposal for a whole new location. I decided to do Dallas, because Scott and Kristin both live there, so we could maybe do the original plan in a new city. So I began looking places up. Going through tons of locations I decided on two places, The Crescent and The Adolphus. Both of these places are five star luxury hotels. However, when I saw what the Crescent looked like I knew Jewls would love it, it looked like a big Victorian castle. Although, while I wanted to do it here, I was having trouble getting into direct contact with the hotel or setting up any serious plans, and I did not have violin players, and I was extremely disappointed about that because I really wanted violin players. I sent out a lot of request to Dallas-area players, who were continually booked. Until I got a reply back from the European Ensemble, who had a wedding that afternoon, but they said that if I did after 8 they could be there. I was totally excited, and this made my permanent decision to go forward with the proposal in Dallas. I tell Julie the news, and we packed Thursday night.

We left Friday around 1 and go to Scott and Kristin's around 4:30. After we got our luggage into the apartment, I stood outside to make phone calls. I called the violin players, who told me that one of their husband's was a photographer, and he would do the proposal for free! I said absolutely! Lets do that! Jewls and Kristin went out to get their nails done, and while they were gone Scott and I headed to the Crescent, after we finished our letters for the next day. When we got there we were shown around by a front desk guy named Anthony. We loved the outdoor fountain in the center of the hotel, but we were worried about weather, he told me to speak to a guy named Tomas. We found Tomas and told him our situation. He showed us a room in the back of the lobby that no one was going to use the next day. It was small, but big enough for the violin players and he said he would set up a table with chocolate strawberries, champagne, and rose petals. I said that would be awesome and he really put my mind at ease about it. After a very stressful couple of days, I had my proposal set up, and we headed back to the apartment, where the girls were consistently complaining about how hungry they were, so we went to Cafe Amore, a restaurant with amazing Italian food. Afterwards we went home and watched "The Story of Us". The whole week I had been renting/buying movies for Julie and I to watch leading up to the proposal. Movies like "You've Got Mail" and "Serendipity". The last two movies we watch were "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "The Story of Us."

Coming up: The PROPOSAL!

 

[Donald'sGirl]

Wow Chris that was a whole lot of rescheduling you needed to do! I am glad it all worked out! I can't wait to hear the rest!

 

[Beast913]

I could not sleep the whole night. Totally worried that everything was going to work out ok. Jewls and I both woke up around 8:30 and decided to go watch cartoons, as this is something we both like to do on Saturday mornings. After about an hour Kristin and Scott had both gotten up and were eating some cereal. About 9:30 I look at Scott and say, "Well, should we get started?" He nods yep and we go into their bedroom to put some last second touches on the letters, and then we went back into the living room. We told them that since their dating anniversary was so close to ours, Scott and I were doing a girls day for the two of them. We hand them the letters, and you girls know the rest from Jewls PR. So after they left Scott and I hanged out for a few mins, got some directions, and headed out the door with the champagne. We stopped to get the roses, some cash, and got some lunch at Chik-fil-a. Now, we have a couple of hours to kill with nothing really to do, the weather is getting through the worst part from the hurricane, so we decided to go see a movie. I had the strangest feeling standing in line for tickets, I looked at Scott and said, "I've all the days to go to the movies...", ha, but it was good to get my mind off of things for a couple of hours. We saw "Traitor" and it was pretty good.

So after the movie we head to the restaurant to give it a pre-game look, and it looked great. Angela of Angela's Bistro is a good friend of my moms, so I knew who she was. We meet Jewls' mom at the restaurant, and just hang out and talk for about forty-five minutes. I talk to Jewls' mom over the phone and he gives me some last minute advice and then Scott and I head over to the hotel around 6:45. We park in the parking garage and we get changed, him in a shirt and tie and me in my tux. We head up to the room around 7:15 and meet Tomas there to start getting things ready. We put everything where we want it, and the violin players get there around 7:40. Around 8:00 (This isn't supposed to get going till 8:15) While I was standing outside the room I see Jewls out in the corner of my eye and jump into the room chanting "She's here, She's here." Tomas goes outside to stall her and then heads into Nobu's, the restaurant nearby. He takes a round about back way into the room so Jewls won't see him again, and drops off the chocolate-covered strawberries (which even have 14k gold flakes on them) because that was the only thing we were missing. He wishes me luck, I grab my rose, and Scott goes to get Kristin and Jewls.

I wait patiently for Jewls to come through the curtain, well, I say patiently, really I was a nervous wreck. Scott pulls back the curtain and Jewls steps through, and she gets flashed in the face by the photographer to capture her first reaction. The curtains opening was the signal for the violin players to start playing "All I Ask Of You" from Phantom of the Opera. I pull her over and said I needed to talk to her, and I give her my little speech. After my speech I ask her to marry me and of course she said "Yes!" I give her a hug and kiss and we stand there for a few seconds before I say, "So do you want to put on the ring?" and she says "Oh, yes!" And I put it on, she gives me another kiss and we stand there and hug while the song is playing in the background.

Afterwards I said I had some strawberries and champagne, and we had some and it was very good. By this time the violin players had started playing "Beauty and the Beast" and we stood and talked and they started playing "Canon in D" which I didn't think they were going to play so that was cool. After the violin players finished playing we went around the hotel and took pictures. After the pictures we said goodbye to the violin players and photographer and head to the restaurant. I tell Jewls to immediately call her father, and she does. The conversation takes the trip to the restaurant, as the restaurant was very close to the hotel. I told Jewls before we go into the restaurant that she can't use her phone, because they don't allow it in the restaurant. I had told her that we were going to take a detour through our hometown to avoid traffic from evacuees, but of course it was to go see my parents. I tell her that we better go see her mom or she's going to have a fit, and as she goes into the restaurant and sees her mom. She goes over and gives her a big hug, and we sit and order dinner. Jewls' mom has a gift basket for us with lots of cool stuff, and our dinner was fantastic. The restaurant was very romantic and the service was wonderful. After dinner we head back to the apartment, and we all stay up late talking and Jewls' plays with her Tiffany's box for about thirty minutes, haha. The next day we head back to our hometown to have lunch with my parents and brother and to see her grandmother and her brother and niece. We finally get back to College Station around 10 pm on Sunday.

So that's everything from my point of view. Now all we have to do is save some money and plan a great wedding! We will have pics soon, probably tonight and the photographer's pics are supposed to be in on Tuesday. I hope you guys enjoyed it and we'll look forward to talking to everyone about our plans!

 

[Donald'sGirl]

Wow that was a great engagement story!! I am so happy you shared it with us! It will be nice to see the pictures! I hope you have a Disney wedding in your future! If you need any advice we are all here to help you!