Billy and I had been talking about marriage for...awhile. I don't know exactly how long. I remember that only a few weeks into our courtship freshmen year that we were talking about things like future houses and marriage and whether I'd change my last name. But that quickly weirded us out and so we put that on the back burner for awhile. But for whatever reason, we've been very serious about our relationship since day 1, and for years it's seemed like only a matter of time before we made it legal.
Last July, Chris, the same friend of Billy's I'd met way back in September of freshmen year, married his girlfriend since November of freshmen year (and my roommate for a year and half of college) and Billy and I were both in the wedding. That was when we began to seriously talk about getting married. And Billy eventually said that he didn't want to get married until we had both finished school and had settled...wherever it was we were going to settle (at that point we hadn't decided on New York yet; we were still considering Las Angeles).
We graduated in December, but we knew we weren't going to be moving for awhile yet. Shortly after graduation, Billy and I split up (again) to spend Christmas with our respective families. So when Billy called me on Christmas eve, just 5 days after our official graduation, to say we were going to go out to a fancy dinner at the Chop House on New Year's Eve, I figured this was just going to be a fun chance to get dressed up and have a wonderful dinner on "our" holiday.
Since our families live roughly one state and 6 hours apart, we often end up getting split up for holidays. Or we're both with one of our families on the actual holiday and then have to visit the other one a short time later, meaning we never get to be just us during vacations from school. Except that, at first by coincidence and then by design, we have managed to spend every New Year's together, by ourselves, in Ypsilanti. While we had never done anything as grand as a fancy dinner together (activities usually range from watching terrible horror movies on DVD to going to Harry Potter themed parties), this just seemed to be a natural progression. Nothing out of the ordinary there!
Billy and I as Rodolphus and Bellatrix Lestrange at the afore-mentioned HP-themed party
Once New Year's Eve finally rolled around, I was a complete bum all day. I dyed my hair in the morning, then spent the whole rest of the day lounging on the couch in my pajamas, playing Wario Woods on our Wii. Billy, meanwhile, had changed into his suit half way through the day and was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Which I didn't notice because I was busy kicking Wario's ass. When I did begin to notice, I kept double checking that our reservations weren't until 7 in the evening, and that my cell phone did in fact have the correct time on it.
They were, and it did. Billy was just crazy.
Around 5:30 Billy announced that he had to "go out and get something." Which I thought was weird, as he's usually much more forthcoming about his activities. But if it meant he would stop walking in front of the TV, I didn't much care (I had a serious Wario Woods problem for awhile. But I'm better now).
An hour later he returned...with nothing. I was beginning to wonder what was going on, but didn't press the issue too hard. It was now my turn to start getting beautiful. I had to pause while getting dressed, however, because I couldn't zip my dress up all the way by myself. I needed Billy's help, but he had sequestered himself in our bathroom, with the door shut. Which is weird, because our bathroom has two parts: a room with the shower and toilet, and another room with the sink. Since the door doesn't really latch to the sink-room, we never close it (our cats push open any door that's in their way). After haranguing him for a minute through the door, demanding to know what was going on, Billy finally emerged holding a jewelry box...filled with a pair of diamond and sapphire earrings!
I wasn't obsessively taking pictures to blog with at that point, so here's the best picture I have of them from our engagement picture session
I squee'd and gave Billy a great big hug. I was so blinded by the sparkle that I missed Billy's big (if inadvertent) clue that something else was coming; when I was hugging him he had to pull his suit jacket back so that I wouldn't feel the lump of another jewelry box in his inner pocket. When I asked why he was giving me these, since he'd already given me a Christmas present of a nice espresso machine, he said he thought I deserved to have a sparkly Christmas present. While I loved my espresso machine, and certainly didn't expect anything more, I wasn't going to turn down these suckers!
So we finished getting ourselves together and when we got out to Billy's car I discovered more gifts: a bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates waiting for me on the front seat of the car. Awwwwwwwwwww!
So after three surprise presents in a row, we get out to the Chop House and order our ridiculously expensive (and ridiculously delicious) meals (and champagne!). The steaks were amazing, which was to be expected; the salad and the champagne a little less so, but I was still enjoying myself. I was forcing myself to drink all of the champagne (it was the most expensive drink I've ever had in my life; you bet I wasn't going to let it go to waste!), and had nearly finished it when Billy excused himself to go to the restroom.
After about five minutes I realize that Billy's taking a really long time. As I took the last swig of champagne I had a fleeting thought: I wonder if he's going to propose tonight? I quickly shot down the idea and finished the glass.
It wasn't a minute later when I heard shuffling and what sounded like something falling behind me. When I turned around, there was Billy down on one knee, holding out a gorgeous diamond and sapphire ring to match the earrings from earlier in the evening.
Oooh, more shiny!
The first words out of my mouth were "oh my god!" As were the next one hundred or so as Billy asked if I would make him my husband (words he was agonizing over in the bathroom). I swear I said "of course!" but Billy claims he never heard me. So now we pretend that I could, in fact, call this off at any time because I never actually said yes. I'm just wearing the ring because it's pretty! Especially since it's been dubbed by our friends as the magic bling, because it's actually two rings: a diamond solitaire and then an enhancer with the sapphires and more diamonds on it.
So anyone else's engagement coincide with a special day in their relationship?
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