About Me

About Me
I'm Rachel, a newlywed, Jesus loving, blog hopping, coffee drinking, college football watching, North Texas girl.
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Friday, June 28, 2013

Our Engagement Story

I haven't blogged in AGES...I know. I've been busy between getting a full time job, buying a house, packing, moving, and renovations! Whew.  I wanted to backtrack and post the story of our engagement back in 2011 so I will have a copy on the blog. Then eventually I will get around to blogging about our first home!


He popped the question...

Sunday, June 19, 2011

and she said "yes!"

I'm just going to preface this by saying I am the girl that is NEVER surprised, I figure everything out. However, William truly surprised me and I'm so glad that he did!
As most of you know, I grew up (for the most part) in Ohio. William and I had been dating almost 10 months but he had never been to Ohio and had only met one of my best friends, Sarah Harrison. I so badly wanted him to be able to meet the people that know me better than I know myself, so I began to plan a trip to Memphis, TN with my two best friends and their husbands. We chose Memphis because it was halfway between Texas and Ohio and only an 8 hour drive. My birthday was June 16th, so Will told me that my big present this year was going to be the cost of the trip.
When the day finally came, we planned to head out after William got off work at 3:30. Little did I know he was actually napping at his parent's house, where he had gone to pick up my ring. I met him at his apartment and he made up some excuse about needing a shower and took the longest shower ever. I was anxious to get on the road because I knew it would be after midnight when we got to Memphis (he was just stalling). We finally left, and Will told me we would have to stop by his work because he forgot his wallet (not true...), so we're driving toward Acura when he merges off the highway at the airport. SURPRISE number one! Poor Will, I was so confused and got a little upset asking if we were flying to Memphis instead (I love road trips, Will doesn't. I thought it was a cop out. Ha) He just told me to wait and see, so I of course kept bugging him with "Did they fly here?" "Are we flying to Ohio?" "What's going on???"  We get to the parking garage and I put on my makeup (I wasn't going to waste it on a road trip!) and I found out we were indeed flying to Ohio! This is why he pulled all the stall tactics, because he knew we would make it to the airport a few hours early.
We flew into Dayton late Saturday night and Ben and Lisa Spahr met us at the airport. We went back to their house where Joe and Sarah Harrison soon met up with us.  I was so excited because Will finally got to meet my best friends, and he just fit into the group so perfectly! The men ran to Walmart because William needed to buy a few things, and this is where the boys finalized the proposal details while we girls sat at home watching extreme couponing. Before everyone dispersed, they asked me what I wanted to do the next night and I said I wanted Marion's Piazza. They're sneaky...William had already planned to take me there before proposing because he knew it was my favorite, but they let me think I was the one to plan the day!
The next morning was a whirlwind of introductions. I took Will to Tim Hortons (stickin' to my Canadian roots) for coffee and Timbits before going to my old church to meet everyone. Then it was off to my hometown of Brookville, OH. The drive around Brookville took all of five minutes, but it was so exciting for me to be able to show him the high school, my old soccer fields that are now corn fields, the houses I grew up in, and our 3 stoplights. Yes 3 stoplights, it's a thriving place. Next William got to meet some of my family! We stopped by my Aunt and Uncle's house and surprised my Grandpa on father's day. After that It was off to Marion's for dinner with Ben, Lisa, Sarah, and Joe.
The pepperoni and sausage pizza was as incredible as ever, but Will didn't each much (if you know Will, you know this is RARE). While we were eating someone mentioned that we should go to Cox Arboretum after dinner to walk around because it was so nice out that evening. I of course, being the difficult person that I am, said that my stomach was hurting and I would rather just go back to Sarah and Joe's to play games. I was overruled, but didn't put up much of a fight and we headed to the beautiful gardens. When we got there we all chatted about how nice it was and how almost 5 years ago us girls had gotten our senior pictures taken there. We came up to a pond and stopped in front of some gorgeous hydrangeas (my favorite!!) to take some pictures. Somehow when we stopped, Ben had my camera and was ready to take pictures. I thought that it was odd, because Will was supposed to have it...but he shrugged it off saying he knew I would want pictures of us; which I did. So Ben started snapping away, then Joe whips out his iphone to take pictures of us too. I thought this was strange and wondered why Joe would want pictures of us (he was actually taking a video thinking Will was about to propose). While we were standing there taking pictures, I was hugging Will and felt him start to shake.  This was what FINALLY clued me in that something was about to happen. The poor boy's knees were a knockin' still when we left that spot and continued on the path around the pond. About 20 yards away from that spot was a gazebo. Everyone made small talk as we headed towards it, everyone except Will who was silent. When we got closer William pulled me aside and led me into the gazebo where he proceeded to get down on one knee and pull out a ring more beautiful than I could have ever dreamed of. The next part is pretty much a blur because I was in shock. He told me that I had probably figured it out by now, but the trip to Ohio wasn't just a birthday trip, he had planned it for another reason. He told me he loved me and asked me to marry him, and I said, "Oh my gosh...YES!" And he put the ring on my finger!!!
It was the perfect proposal! My best friends and their husbands were there filming it and taking pictures. They left us alone for a few minutes then we walked over to them and they celebrated with us. As soon as we got back to the cars we called our families, and then tried to change our Facebook relationship status to "engaged" on our phones. It didn't work out too well so we fixed it later ;) June 19, 2011 is one of the happiest days of my life so far. It was perfect, but I know there are so many more perfect days ahead.  I'm so thankful for William and what God has done in each of our lives to bring us to this place. We can't wait to start our lives together and pray that each step of this process is done in a way that brings glory and honor to Him!

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