Saturday, September 6, 2014

Who I Am #6

all other who i am posts are in the sidebar.  

the dave and mandy story: the engagement 

after the hype of graduation, i went home feeling a bit discouraged about my 5 year long relationship with mr. david houle.  in our last conversation he had casually mentioned that "we'll know when we know" and i was pretty sure after 5 years and long distance, i didn't know how much more sure i could get that i wanted to spend the rest of my life with this man.


the week after we got home from my college graduation in indiana, dave had our christmas date planned and ready.  

this had been an ongoing tradition between the two of us.  during our dating years, we took turns planning and executing a christmas date for each other and this was his year.

we drove up to crested butte and the last 10 minutes of our drive dave made me wear a blind fold, in fact when we arrived at the mystery location, he got out and made me wait in the car for about 10 MORE minutes.

when everything was ready, he led me up to the cutest little a frame mountain cabin and the inside was decorated with christmas lights and dozens of candles.


he had a fondue dinner all prepared for us.

and he kept wanting to take pictures. ;)

he brought a stocking for me to open.

i remember pulling out a bunch of random dollar store crap.  like candles and orange toothpaste.
and at the very bottom was the ring box.

he snapped this picture right as i pulled it out and then set the box down next me to and said "don't open it, i'll be right back."

he grabbed his guitar from the other room and played a song he had written for me.  "all i'm asking for is tomorrow and every day after that."

then he got down on one knee and said "I can't imagine spending the rest of my life with anyone but you, will you marry me?"

i said "yes" and we had our first official kiss. :)  about a half hour later, i heard people singing "jingle bells" outside!  i opened the door and a bunch of our friends had come to celebrate with us!

this was the "show off the ring" shot. :)

dave had rented two of those cute little cabins so the guys could have one and the girls could have one and we all stayed the night.  it was fantastic.  plus there was about 6 inches of fresh snow! beautiful and magical for sure.

that night, i was sleeping next to amanda and i kept waking her up and telling her to look at my ring. she loved it.  ;)

here are a few of our engagement pictures taken by laura moffat.

after the roller coaster of dating this man, it felt surreal that we finally were engaged. what a crazy feeling!

i couldn't wait to marry him.

3 comments :

Amanda said...

That was an amazing couple days! Love that we got to celebrate that time with you guys!!

Laura said...

Yours is really one of my all-time favorite engagement stories. The amount of thought and effort Dave put into that was so amazing. Of course he knew you well and made it just as you would love it! Then, to be able to celebrate right away with friends. So cool! Well done, Dave, well done!

Courtney said...

i totally have chills. that was the sweetest!!!